Fifty Years
by Hakura0
Summary: AU Post Doomsday The Doctor never quite got around to moving on, but when an old friend meets him on the street by chance will he have a choice? Of smalltalk and promises, damaged Time Lords and visits in between. Torchwood s2 spoilers Co-written by Ryuu


The TARDIS needed refueling. That was his only reason for being there, really. The big blue box had found itself in an alley off the main route, as if it sensed its master's desire to be alone - the same intense desire he had felt for months now, years.

Had it really been years? He hadn't been paying attention. It was odd, for him, not to pay attention to the passage of time. But that was the truth, and he had no desire to search his mind for the answer even then. He had left her alone, and it felt like yesterday.

So he was in Cardiff, this strange man who was and then again was not the Doctor, walking down the road because sitting in the stationary TARDIS only made things worse. He could have haunted the library, or spent yet more time fixing whatever needed fixing or could do with it or he felt like it in the TARDIS. But it was too quiet there, and back on Earth, he remembered that his nightmares and the things which were not nightmares but waking dreams were not healthy.

The Doctor - this Doctor, lean and haunted - was wearing again the blue suit (blue for mourning to his people), black shirt (Earth's mourning). Brown coat, ever-present. He didn't look like a hero. He looked like a soldier.

Across the street another man looked him over as he walked. The man in the great coat grinned briefly, and jogged easily across the street during a break in the cars. There were a few moments of weaving through people on the sidewalk, but soon he'd caught up with the Doctor. A hand reached out, grabbing the brown coated shoulder gently. The other hand extended, in anticipation of the man's turning around.

"Captain Jack Harkness." He introduced himself, all charisma and beaming smile. Unaware of the fact that he had hold of the man he'd been waiting over a hundred years for the return of. It had been a gut instinct, if nothing else to come over. He had been somewhat drawn to the thin stranger, and Jack wasn't one to fight his urges.

He nearly winced when touched - someone who had become very unused to being near enough to others for that, grown out of the habit of touch. When he turned to look at the man who grabbed him, his brown eyes were wide with surprise.

"Hullo," he said, a bit weakly, the word both greeting and question at once.

"Hello." Jack answered him, his voice confident and flirting. He moved his hand up slightly, intent on shaking the other man's as he kept his smile on full force. He'd almost faltered at the other man's surprised look, but he had something in the way of experience at keeping steady. Besides, he had come up from behind him, a little surprise was natural enough.

The shock in his eyes didn't quite fade, but he managed a hint of a smile, still off his balance and wishing that he could find it again. "..Captain Jack Harkness, you said," he repeated (he needed to make himself believe the evidence). He shook the other man's hand when it came to that, though it was more letting Jack shake his hand.

"At your service." He informed him with a wink before grasping his hand firmly and shaking it. There was something familiar about it that he couldn't quite place, but he pushed the thought to the back of his mind. He'd shaken alot of hands in his time. "And you are?"

"John Smith," he said automatically, still with that fixed sort-of smile, as if he weren't quite sure what was happening or how to react. "..it's nice to meet you. Brilliant." At that, his smile grew just a bit, a lopsided, awkward half-smile.

"I could say the same of you. Normally I never forget a face, but you've got a very familiar hand John, I don't suppose we've met before, have we?" As far as pick-up lines went it was at the bottom his pile, he had to admit.

He raised an eyebrow slightly at that - still working through his surprise and a sort of vague disbelief he couldn't get past. "I couldn't be sure - rubbish with faces, me. Maybe, though." A pause, and he chanced, "They say deja vu is because you've met someone you knew in a past life."

Now it sounded as if he was being forward, but it wasn't quite true.

"I think I've heard that one before. But if you think that's the case, why don't we try to get reacquainted?" For a moment his eyes were probing, and he looked directly into those of the other man. To make up for it his smile, and tone were that much more flirty. Beyond this now though, he was thinking.

"Hmm. Maybe. I won't be in town for very long." He was smiling, but it didn't reach his eyes at all. His eyes always gave him away - they were so much older than he was. "And I don't believe I said that was the case... I was just giving one reason you might think I was familiar. Or, er, my hand, rather. Bit odd, that."

"It is." Jack agreed as bits and pieces fell into place in his mind. "Though I think I might know where I recognize your hand from now." He chose his next words deliberately, since there was no reason to throw this man off if he was wrong. "Tell me John, are you a Doctor?"

"Do you?" he asked, blithely, as if it didn't quite matter, but Jack's question threw him off, and it took him a moment to find an answer, almost choking on it. "Actually, I am."

Unsure of how he would react himself if he kept up the current pace of conversation. "I think I've been waiting to see you again for a very long time. I've got a bit of a problem, and I've got something I think you should take a look at." His heart raced but he did his best to stay calm, there'd be no sense in making a scene on the street.

The Doctor frowned slightly, but nodded. "You need a doctor, I guess?" he asked, innocently, as if Jack didn't already know who he was. He wasn't sure if he wished he didn't. "By all means - lead on."

"The right kind of Doctor." Jack corrected him, affirming that he knew. "Right this way." He started, slowly, in the direction of the Hub. It was the safest place he could think of to talk, or at least on the subject he had in mind.

He followed after, unsure whether he was doing the right thing. Should he be following Jack Harkness, the man who was 'wrong' in time, or should he be walking away? Back to the TARDIS, and... He realized abruptly that he'd been following almost without thinking, and decided it was easier to just go, and not regret it later.

Of course, that could go both ways.

Jack couldn't help glancing behind him at rather constant intervals. Making sure that he was still there, as if he expected the other man to vanish into thin air. It had been horribly lucky that he noticed him, he knew this. From his reaction, the name he gave to begin with, Jack knew that he wasn't here to see him.

He hadn't had any intention of seeing Jack - he hadn't known that he was in Cardiff. He would have been content to spend his brief time in the city as he spent all of his days now - alone. When he had seen Jack, at first, he had been sure it was his mind playing tricks on him - a mind like his could create potent illusions.

And the number of times he had seen Her in the TARDIS, he couldn't trust even himself.

But he followed. Because if he left, Jack would follow. Because he had to know this wasn't a hallucination.

"In here." He told him, once they'd finally reached their destination. Jack moved to open the door to the seeming Tourist Information Center. His mind was gathering up all the questions that had been sitting, unanswered in the corners of his memory for the past century.

He raised an eyebrow at the facade. "..Tourist information?" he asked, making conversation for the sake of eliminating the silence. "I've been to Cardiff before, you know..." Bad joke, Doctor. But he was trying. Sort of. His hearts weren't in it.

"And I'm assuming your Police Box is really free for public use?" Jack joked back, a front was a front after all. "I can't think of anywhere better, and the thing I want to show you is in here. Unless you've got a preference?"

He shrugged, glancing around. "Not particularly... this is fine. Just.. a tourist information centre. Aren't you afraid you'll get actual tourists?" He had a feeling it wasn't really a tourist center. Why would Jack be there if it was?

"It's Cardiff." He answered flatly, moving through the door and nodding towards the girl at the counter. A moment later a wall opened up and he made his way towards the staircase, waiting to make sure the Doctor followed.

He thought briefly. "Fair point," he allowed, following Jack. He glanced at the girl at the counter only briefly before he followed after Jack. He couldn't say that he wasn't a bit eager to get this done with.

Going down the staircase then through the empty Hub with ease Jack navigated them towards his office, keeping his pace slow. When he finally reached the door he held it open, glancing back at the Doctor.

"..interesting place," he commented, looking at Jack, but looking at his surroundings more carefully. It was Jack, and he trusted Jack... but he didn't trust him that much, not now. He had no way of knowing how long it had been for him - if he resented him.

"What can I say, It was a prime location." Jack didn't want to tell him what it was now, not until he'd had some questions answered. He wasn't sure if, or how this Doctor was different, what the reaction would be.

"Underneath Cardiff? I'd imagine," he replied dryly, stepping into the office carefully. Still concerned - he wasn't sure why.

Jack followed the Doctor in, closing, but not locking the door behind him. "Underneath the Rift." He explained, moving around him, more casual now.

He glanced back when the door closed, but didn't comment, frowning slightly. "Under the Rift... why?" he asked. Had to ask.

"To keep an eye on it, on things that come through." He paused for a moment, moving to sit down in a chair and then looking up at him. "Because someone I know used the area to fuel up their ship."

"Ah.. true enough. The TARDIS does occasionally require the energy here.." He didn't sit, standing by a chair without looking at it - he was watching Jack. "How did you get here?" He had to know.

"After you left I waited awhile, trying to see if you'd come back. You didn't. I had my vortex manipulator, so I figured I'd aim for around this time, London, somewhere you'd been, where you would be again, so that I could find you." He was speaking easily, without any real blame in his voice. "It didn't quite work. I ended up in 1869, with the manipulator out of order. Decided there was nothing to do but wait until I caught up."

"Ah... you waited for a long time, didn't you?" His voice slightly hollow - Jack didn't blame him, but he blamed himself.

"A century and a half. I'm sure you can see what's wrong with that." Jack gave something of a grim smile towards the other man. "That's not what I want to ask you about first though. There's something else."

He glanced at Jack, raising an eyebrow. "..if not that, then what?" he asked.

"I have in my possession a list of the dead from Canary Wharf. I need you to tell me it's wrong." He told him simply, his expression serious.

"Oh." A pause, as he took that in. The list of the dead. Canary Wharf. The breach between worlds, and... and Rose. "..it's false," he said, after a long moment. "She's not.. she's alive." Alive and safe and gone.

Relief flooded him for an instant, but he couldn't help feeling there's something wrong in the way the Doctor said it. "What happened?" Jack left the question vague in case it was something else.

He didn't - couldn't - look at Jack when he spoke then, shaking his head. His ancient eyes were sad. "She's gone. Safe. But she's gone now."

"Isn't that what you wanted, her safe? Why you sent her home back on the satellite." His voice was soft as he asked, trying to prod easily, to figure out what exactly had happened to get this response.

"Yes. Oh, I'm glad that she's safe." But his hollow voice said otherwise. Safe he wanted - of course he did - but gone... "She was going to... she had to go. But I can't ever see her again." And there it was. The damning fact.

"How many of the others have you?" Jack asked him, leaning on an arm of his chair, watching him carefully. Comparing his reactions to the all too vivid look that had been on his old face when he thought she was dead.

He winced at Jack's words, looking at something, filing cabinet, it didn't matter. Not Jack. "Some." His mouth was dry. Jack's words hurt in a way he hadn't anticipated.

"Then pretend that's all it is. You can't see her again but she's safe, and you know that. In the scheme of things you don't generally go back and visit either way, do you?" He asked.

"That's not the same thing," he replied quickly, sharply - almost snapping. "It's not even remotely the same." Was it? No. No, because they hadn't been his whole world. She had been his whole world. After the Time War, she had become something new to cling to. Someone to...

"Humor me then, and tell me why not." Jack suggested a few moments later. He'd done alot of research on the people who had travelled with the Doctor. There were some photos, some files, and he'd had plenty of time.

He still didn't look at him. No, he couldn't. "...it's not your business," he muttered, finally. How could he quantify that? It was different because she was Rose.

"Alright then." Voice flat Jack continued on. "That's fair enough, we can talk about something that is my business." As he spoke the next three words he stretched a false smile at each. "I. Can't. Die."

The Doctor did look at Jack when he said that. "...no, you can't," he replied, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, Jack." And he was sincere. He was sorry.

Jack allowed the smile to fade, continuing on. "You knew." The tone is border edge accusatory. "You knew, and you left me on that ship, ankle deep in Dalek dust." There is a pause, and when he talks again it is less fact then theory. "You saw me before the TARDIS dematerialized, I'd gotten into the room. I saw it leave."

"Yes, I did," he said, flatly. Still standing, looking awkward and out of place in the room. "I couldn't take you, Jack. It wasn't possible."

"So you ran away, and couldn't take a moment to tell me why. Then or after." He stood up, suddenly antsy, moving around his desk. "What am I?"

"I couldn't." A pause, and the Doctor looked at him again. "You're human, Jack. Immortal and human." Cognitive dissonance. Brilliant, he thought sarcastically.

"Why not? What stopped you from writing a note, or coming across me at some point? I'm not even going to ask 'how', something tells me that doesn't matter." For everything going through his head his tone is just above normal.

"Jack... you can't die. No matter how many times you're killed, you can't die. And that's... wrong. The TARDIS wouldn't have let you on. And I couldn't have." He glanced away slightly. "I had to run. I was dying, and she was hurt." And I didn't want to have to kill you.

"So that's it then." Jack said simply, looking at him for a moment before turning away. He put his hand into his pocket, feeling for the key he knew was in there. One of two things he still had from before. It would be useless now, if the Doctor was to be believed. He'd said it before, in 200100, 'Never doubted him, never will'.

"...I'm sorry, Jack. I would have come back for you, but..." But I'm a coward. But I... "My regeneration went wrong. Terribly wrong." And then I forgot.

"You're alright now?" He glanced back over his shoulder, hand still on the key as he asked. The other comment weighed on his mind, he would have come back for him? It went against what he'd said a moment before, that the TARDIS wouldn't have let him on. There was something he was missing.

"Sort of." He smiled thinly, and it was anything but sincere. "I'd expect most people think I'm a bit mad. Maybe I am. It's hard to say, when I'm the one looking at myself."

"I should probably give you back something I have of yours." Jack's voice is almost hesitant, but he moves towards a corner of the office, picking up a large black bag before turning around.

The Doctor frowned again, looking at the bag before looking back at Jack, eyebrow raised skeptically. "..what is it?"

"See for yourself." He moved to the desk, setting the bag down carefully. Unzipping it he pulled the sides of the bag down, revealing a high tech jar of sorts, filled with liquid and one very familiar appendage.

The Doctor stared at it. And he stared for a bit more, for a moment saying nothing before practically squeaking, in a surprised, somewhat high-pitched voice, "Is that my hand?!"

"It might be. If it is you owe a lady in London a new koi." Jack said innocently, a bit amused by the reaction. "If not I've been wasting a lot of time trying to get this thing working."

"A... a koi?" He blinked, looking utterly baffled. "My hand... fell out of a spaceship and killed some woman's fish? ...and why do you have my hand?"

"It did. Well, she claims, anyway." Jack told him with a shrug. "I don't think she plans on holding you to it, if it makes any difference." He avoided the other question.

"Well, I'd hope so - I'm a bit short on fish, couldn't replace it anyhow.." He was still frowning at the hand. "..what's all this, then? The.. bits and baubles there. Can't just be to keep it from decaying. Too complicated."

"Well, it's the start of a location device. Apparently the bad start of one, since it seems to be unaware of the fact that what it's meant to locate is a few inches away." Jack gave the jar a slightly dirty look.

He paused, looking up at Jack. "..you were trying to use my hand to locate me? Why?" Confused, again.

"Because it had been over a century with no sign of you and I thought I should do something if I ever planned to run into you again." He flashed a grin. "Of course, I thought that something would have a bit more to do with working on this then flirting on the street but..."

"..apparently I like to get myself noticed, not tracked." He smiled faintly. "..how'd you even find this thing? I didn't even think about it.."

"That Christmas Harriet Jones sent a message over the television, asking for you. I managed to contact her the next day, a little persuasion and she told me what went on. I had the police keep an eye out for a hand, put a reward on something and it turns up soon enough, usually."

"Ah... that's clever. Very clever." A pause, and he asked a bit gingerly, "How is Harriet Jones? I haven't been here in a long while..." He wasn't sure why he bothered asking. Querying after a murderer.

"I haven't exactly kept in contact. All I have is what I've seen on the news. And a message that seems to be worming it's way through the internet ever since. There are things besides politics to worry about." Jack told him.

"Fair enough. Probably are. I wonder if she's even still.." But he let the thought trail, because it didn't matter so much, did it? No, not very much at all. "So," he said finally, when the previous thought had died, "You took my hand in order to find me... and then what? I mean, I ought to say 'now what', because you've found me, and I'm here, and... where is here, anyway?'

It had to come down to this eventually, and Jack looked straight at him for a moment. "When I tell you, you can't overreact." He was serious, for this if nothing else, if none of the rest of it. He was standing in front of the door, and just noticed now, but didn't move. There is nothing but confidence that this place is his, but the Doctor does not know this. Yet.

He frowned at that, looking at Jack with some measure of suspicion. New Doctor, new concerns, and he still wasn't convinced he could trust Jack (though he was, thankfully, convinced that he was real). "Alright, I won't," he agreed.

"Torchwood 3." He said it simply, as if it had been the time instead. The words were out now, and he knows what Torchwood 1 did, and what the foundation was but if he went in complaining it would've been worse.

The Doctor tensed instantly at the words, eyes narrowing slightly as he realized. "Torchwood," he repeated flatly. Oh, he wasn't overreacting, that much he was certain of.

He moved aside from the door now, his actions deliberate, eyes still locked onto the Time Lord. "Three. As of 1999 we have had nothing to do with Torchwood London. If you believe that I would have anything to do with any of that, with how it's been run, with the reasons why it was founded, just go. Whatever I did to manage to get your opinion of me that low it's obvious I'm not going to be able to raise it."

"There is no Torchwood London," he remarked, watching Jack carefully. Maybe he should have been more calm, but he bristled at the very thought of the organization that had caused so much harm. "Tell me that you weren't involved. That you wouldn't." Because ifs didn't work, and he wanted to trust Jack - he really did.

"I wasn't and I wouldn't." Jack replied dutifully, his voice firm. It stung though, that he had to say it. He took it to mean that he didn't just trust that he hadn't, that he needed that bit more to believe. If he'd really thought he would have, what point would a few words have, anyway?

The Doctor relaxed only marginally, but it was a relief. It was almost tangible. "Thank you," he said, almost in a whisper. "I needed to know." Desperately. Because he couldn't see Jack if he had helped send her away.

Jack nodded, still a bit confounded in the fact that he'd had to say them. "Now you do then." He thought on what they'd gone over so far, what things needed to be gone over again. Most of them it seemed, they'd eased just overtop of the topics, but they needed to go through everything before the probes went deeper.

"I do." Because he trusted Jack not to lie to him, not about that. He paused, looked around again. Wary still, but somewhat less so. "...you work here, then? What d'you do?" Curious, or feigning curiosity, or just not wanting to lose to the silence.

"Almost the same thing usually, on a smaller scale. Investigate things that are possibly related to alien activity, catalogue and store the tech we find in the vault so it can't be misused." There's a casual shrug. "Basically keep an eye out, mostly on what comes through the rift."

"Right. That's good - it's good." A pause. "Does the rift open often?" He asked before he had a chance to mentally check the words, make sure he wasn't asking anything ridiculous.

"It doesn't really open, it's still closed. There's activity, but never that much, and it's sporadic. The one time it did open it wasn't exactly of its own accord." He explained simply. "Mostly just things come through, a few misplaced people either way. The occaisonal pterodactyl."

"Ah. Right, then." Thinking for a moment, he absently asked, "Pterodactyls? Really?" A distracted question, his mind elsewhere.

"Just the one, really. Not exactly somewhere we can send her, can't exactly get her set up with a job around the city, so we've been keeping her here. Fairly free reign and she's trained to only eat things with a certain sauce on them, which is fairly appreciated by almost everyone."

"Sounds like a good idea - wouldn't want her munching on the staff, I s'pose." He smiled just a bit at that.

"Not for the most part, and if we did, we've got the solution right there." It's a joke, and Jack realizes that it's a bit off.

"Sounds like it." He was still thinking, and asked after a brief moment, "The rift doesn't come out anyplace, does it?" Just curious. Or he tried to sound "just curious".

"Nowhere in particular. Alot of different points in time and space, all in this universe though." He paused for a minute, giving the Doctor a scrutinizing look, but continuing with a light comment. "Thought you'd had experience with it, or is that just in its emissions?"

He shook his head. "Never been through one." He couldn't help being disappointed by Jack's answer, and fought to hide that. You can't go get her, stop thinking you can, he reminded himself sternly. "..I never was that eager to walk where I might not come back from."

"I haven't either, but the fact that we've gotten airplanes and dinosaurs that have come through tells me it's a bit scattered. Any particular reason for the sudden interest in the Rift?" Jack asked him lightly.

A shrug from the Doctor, looking at the door. "No, no particular reason. I've always been a bit curious about them." And he smiled, but it was a bit forced.

"Let me guess, you never found the time to find out about them?" Jack's voice is skeptical, and he moved to lean against his desk.

"Oh, I know a bit. Just not enough." How to go through and come out the other side and find her. He silenced his thoughts by force. Can't, can't. "Never can know too much, not without walking through it."

"Which I wouldn't suggest. I've come across some people who've had experience with going through from this end. Trust me that you don't want to."

"I wasn't planning on it." Yes, he was, but only if it went there. "I'd have to leave the TARDIS behind and end up who-knows-where - can't."

"Nowhere you couldn't, technically, get to with the TARDIS anyway." A pause, and Jack looked at the Doctor carefully. "You 'can't' what?"

Had he said that aloud? He hadn't meant to. Really hadn't meant to. "Er, nothing." A lame answer, but he couldn't think of anything else. Had it really been that long since he'd spoken to people?

"You're not going to pull that, sorry." Jack told him flatly, shaking his head slightly. "Nothing is ever nothing, and the fact you didn't even bother to try to come up with an excuse just makes it worse Doc."

"It's nothing important," he replied, glancing away. At the desk, shelf - something that wasn't Jack and thus wasn't asking him questions. "Not worth thinking too hard about, honestly."

Jack's expression turned muddled, part amused, annoyed, and a bit concerned. "You see, saying that just makes it worse." A pause. "Just how long has it been for you since Canary Wharf, anyway?"

The Doctor nearly winced at that - he couldn't help it. "Oh, it's hard to say.." A pause, and he did try to think about it. He hadn't been keeping track of linear time. "..maybe a year." Maybe more than that.

"Would there be any particular reason you haven't gone about your usual? Yes, I've met enough people to know what your usual is, so don't bother trying to pretend elsewise." His look is calculating now.

"What usual? I haven't got one. I travel." He shrugged, glancing at Jack. "I've been traveling. All over." Everywhere in the universe but this planet.

"Who are you traveling with right now then?" Jack's question is as innocent as he can manage it while still raising one eyebrow.

"Oh.. just me and the TARDIS, these days." He smiled faintly, as if to say That's okay, that's how it should be.

"Why?" He makes the question light, curious. An attempt to suggest that he doesn't suspect anything, though he does. That for the sake of the moment he'd pretend, but moments were short.

"Why not?" Lightly, then, "Haven't come across anyone. Not particularly motivated, anyway.." He shrugged. Blatant lies.

"Oh?" The question is knowing this time, and Jack looks at him pointedly. He'd done his share of active research.

"I haven't. It doesn't matter, does it?" A faulty question, but he couldn't help feeling a touch defensive.

"It may. Depending on what you 'can't'." He brought the word back up, a slip it seemed, that he would do well to hold onto. He hoped.

He visibly winced at the thought of that. "Can't go through the rift, that's all." It wasn't at all.

"No, I'd say that's entirely possible and you know it." Jack shot him a pointed look. "Try again."

"It's possible, but that doesn't mean that I can do it. If I don't know where it comes out, I could end up in a place where the TARDIS won't function." His voice was tighter than he wanted.

"Fine then. But it's still not all, is it? You had some little crazy hope sitting on the Rift, somewhere you want to go..."

"It doesn't matter," he snapped, not meeting Jack's eyes. "It really, honestly doesn't."

"Somewhere you couldn't get with the TARDIS..." He was thinking as he spoke now, eyes locked onto the Doctor for a reaction. "Somewhere that you know you can't get with the Rift now. A place you can't go..." Something clicks, and he almost frowns at the Time Lord. "What exactly happened, Doctor, that you 'can never' see Rose again?"

The Doctor flinched, and hid it as turning his face away from Jack, looking at something - even he wasn't clear what - to his left. "I can't get back to her." He drew in a breath, shaking more than he would ever admit. "She's beyond my reach."

There was a moment's hesitation before Jack moved back within his view. "So that's it then, all of this. You've been, from the looks of you, moping since then, travelling alone and looking for things that might extend your reach."

"I haven't been moping." He scowled, though it was at least half-directed at himself. "I know there's no way to get to her. She's dead to this world now." And he wanted to mourn her all over again, but he couldn't bear the ridicule he was sure that would bring.

"That's odd." Jack leaned against a wall now, arms folded across his chest, a knowing look in his eyes. "I think you took it better when you thought she actually was."

"What do you mean?" Almost a demand. Suddenly it seemed very difficult to speak. A hard weight in his chest, somewhere between his two hearts.

"You know what I mean." His voice is even, a little louder then it needs to be. "Back on the Gamestation."

He took a step back, as if he needed the distance, and he couldn't meet Jack's eyes. Couldn't think of it. "I thought she had died. How was that better?"

"I didn't say it was, I said that you reacted better. You hardly stayed in a slump, you had your silence, to think, and then when the time came you were back on your feet business as usual ready to storm the fortress and figure out who had done it. Should I continue?"

"Don't." One word, voice choked too tight in his throat. "Jack. Don't."

"Alright." The word is softer, but his gaze is still the same. "I won't."

He couldn't find words, then. Staring at the floor, or something that he thought must have been the floor, but he lacked the awareness of his surroundings that he usually had. Thinking of her, what had happened.

Jack took a few steps towards him, letting his arms move down to his sides. "I probably shouldn't have brought that up, but the point stands. It's been more and more questions, is there anything you actually want to say?"

The Doctor had to think about that, pause and try to force his mind to work on a different track. What did he want to say? To Jack? "I'm sorry." Was that all?

That was all.

That was it? The one thing he'd had to say to him. Jack made his way closer to the other man, halting a few feet away, hands now shoved into his pockets. "You've said that already. You're getting repetitive."

He smiled faintly, but it wasn't out of humor. It was almost bitter. "I guess I'm stuck on repeat, then." And wasn't that a brilliant metaphor for the last year-and-whatever?

"That's really all you have to say...?" Jack tilted his head as he asked, eyes searching. There had to be some way to get back to the conversation, he wasn't quite sure it would be the best idea to let him leave as he was now.

"What else is there?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Actually looking at Jack. The bitter smile had faded, and his brown eyes were dark and sad.

"Unless the only thing there is about you is that you're 'sorry', I'd imagine there would be something else." He retorted simply, meeting his eyes.

"..what do you want me to say, then?" His voice almost hollow. As if it didn't matter, and maybe 'I'm sorry' really was all there was. But no, that wasn't him. That was some other 'him'. The one that had given second chances.

"Whatever else there is. I've got no shortage of time to listen. If all you were was 'I'm sorry' then you wouldn't be worried about things that were out of your reach, and there's got to be more to you then that even."

"..I don't know what else there is." It was an admission, almost terrifying to say. What else was there? He was a traveler who had lost everything.

"What were you thinking, what have you done since then? Anything. Everything. Something." He used suggestions to fill a silence there would've been if he hadn't.

"I've... traveled. I let the TARDIS choose the course." Uneasy, but he couldn't let it fall to silence, because he didn't know if he would talk again if they stopped. "All over the universe... anywhere the TARDIS took me."

"So you just drifted. You said there was no one to take with you, you didn't even look. You just moved from place to place." It's an observation, not quite a statement or a question, but open for an arguement.

"That's what I do. I move. I travel." Softly, not really an argument but not really not one. "Sometimes... I find someone. Sometimes I don't."

"But you haven't, not really, not since then. You like to show off to much when you've got someone aboard, pick out places to at least try to get to. You've been alone."

A pause. "..I have been. It's better that way."

"Better to have no idea what else there is to you but apologies?" Jack asks him lightly.

"Yes." Wait. "No." No, "I don't know." What did he want? He didn't want to lose again. He didn't want to betray her.

"You may not, but somehow I don't think it's better that you can't even decide that for yourself. What's the real reason you've been travelling alone?"

"Because I have been." Argumentative - defensive, more. Not meeting Jack's eyes this time. "It's easier that way. Better."

"Better alone then with anyone else?" The question is purposeful in it's vagueness, something more direct meant within, hinted at. Something that would get its own question after.

"Yes." He didn't hesitate that time.

The hook was set. "So if Rose walked in right now and asked to go with you, you'd shoot her down."

He had walked right into that one, and he knew it. "..yes. No." A beat, and he struggled for words. "I couldn't tell her no. I can never... I'd be too selfish to.."

"Then it's not alone that you want, really. Is it?" Jack had expected that answer, was surprised by the predictability of this Doctor, and the lengths it spoke for him.

He almost flinched at that. Once again, walking into it. "It's alone that I have."

His voice was patient now, his thoughts simple. "That's not what I asked you though." Jack told him.

"Yes." A pause, fighting for words that usually came so easily to him. "It is what I want. I can't... it's easier this way."

"If it was what you really wanted it wouldn't matter who it was. You want Rose, and she's out of your reach so you've closed your eyes to any other possibilities, and told yourself that's how it is."

"It is how it is. How it has to be." His voice tight again, eyes focused on something to the left of Jack's shoulder.

"That's a lie and you know it. You've far from exhausted all your possibilities." Jack's voice went odd for a moment before as he continued. "For instance, you could -" He cut himself off, shaking his head slightly.

A brief pause. "What?" Unsure why he had cut off the sentence.

"Nothing. I just forgot something you'd said. Sort've kills that idea."

"...what?" Repeating the question, actually looking at Jack this time.

"Just that, if there weren't certain circumstances, you wouldn't have to go as far as the next room to find someone willing to go with you." Jack gave the Doctor a pointed look.

"You mean.. you would..." He let the sentence fall. Tried to tell himself that was ridiculous - Jack had a new life, and Don't get your hopes up.

"I never tried to stop." He said simply, pausing a moment before continuing. "Wouldn't work though, would it? You said the TARDIS wouldn't let me in, and I know you're not one to stay in one place."

"The TARDIS wouldn't let you through.. then." And he looked away - embarrassed. Shame? "She would now. I'm.. sure of it."

Jack gave a smile, too relieved at the fact that it had been misinformation to care that it had been. "It wouldn't be right away, for me anyway. Give me some time to get things together here, make sure this place stays on track, say, fifty years?" His voice is cautious as he suggests it.

"Fifty years," he repeated, as if he was mystified by the entire situation, and he was. How quickly he had gone from nothing to fifty years. "Think I can manage that.."

"You could always jump right to then, if you didn't want to wait any." He suggested. "It'd probably fly past with an actual date to wait on."

"..dunno. That wouldn't be fair, would it?" A small, hesitant smile, as if he wasn't quite sure he should be smiling at all.

"It's up to you. I'm the one giving myself some sort of reverse curfew." Jack smiled back. "You can do whatever you want to on your end."

"Right, then... fifty year time limit... I could visit. Couldn't I?" The idea of spending fifty more years alone was suddenly terrifying.

"I don't see why not. It's not like there's anything to hide from you here. There's nothing going on more often then there is anything." He told him easily.

"Right.. so I'll have to rescue you from your boredom sometimes, yes?"

"If that's what you want to do. Otherwise, I've had plenty of experience waiting, and at least this group is more interesting then some of them."

"Hmm. Well, I don't have a schedule, so... I could probably pop by." Feigning unenthusiasm, but without wanting or trying to, the idea of traveling with someone again was exciting. Enticing, also. Any number of words, and he was reciting them in his head so that he wouldn't feel guilty for 'replacing' her.

"Right, when you've got a spare moment. Between the world savings and such. If you ever get tired of waiting you can effectively hit fast forward." Jack kept his own tone casual, though the smile stayed on his face. "Alternately, if you get tired of waiting and change your mind..."

"I'm not going to." He smiled a little and shook his head. "I've made my choice - fifty years. And visits when I can between. And... that's good." A pause. "That's what I want." As opposed to being alone. As opposed to hallucinating in the TARDIS console room and pretending it was alright. Maybe if someone else was there - Jack, the man who is wrong in time, whom he cannot lose - those visions would go away.

"Then that's that. We can sort things out that need sorting when we get to them." He was happier at the current events then he seemed. He had a date now, fifty years and then it was back to almost how it had been. As much as it could be.

"Right. No need to worry about all that now.. fifty years to think on it - well, not all the time. That would be silly. Not to mention redundant, after a while, and a lot of other adjectives." Relieved, he was babbling again, habit for him.

"A fifty-year long block of thought might be a little excessive, true. I can think of a lot more inventive things that could take place over that period. A good number of which, sadly, probably won't, seeing as this century isn't quite ready for them." A joke now, on familiar enough topic, in the end.

"I would say 'more's the pity', but I'm sure you'd take that somewhere I don't want it going." He grinned anyway, though. "I'm sure you'll muddle through somehow. So'll I, to that point. No idea where, but as someone from this planet said a long time ago, the journey's the better part." A pause, and he added thoughtfully, "This time, though, I think I prefer the end result. Sort of Machiavellian of me, but there you are."

Jack decided not to bring up, yet again, the fact that the Doctor's journey had to be all of five minutes if he wanted it to be. "Wouldn't the end result just be more journeying in this case? We'll find things to do in the meantime, I'm sure. Hopefully not consisting of paper work."

"Well, yes, but you've gotta mark off the chapters somehow, haven't you? One journey that leads to another that leads to another - that's the way to do things." He nodded, and made a face at the mention of paperwork. "Definitely not paperwork."

"Alright then, Waiting: Part One. Approximately a century and a half, 1,392..." Jack realized what he was saying for a moment, pondered where the number had come from and shook his head before continuing. "Anyway, It seems to have started part two. I can't dodge the paperwork completely, though I do my best."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at the number, but didn't question it. Instead, he said, "Part two's much shorter than that. Fifty years - not too bad, that. Blink of an eye." One eighteenth of his life, but he didn't say that. It was funny how Jack could make him feel young just by comparison. The immortal tended to have that effect on people. "Paperwork," he said slowly, "is why I've always endeavored to stay uninvolved in bureaucracy. And business."

"Nothing really seems to take as long anymore. I'm putting partial blame on utilities. Not that they weren't more then welcome once they came back around." He wondered idly when he'd started counting how many times he'd died. "Most of it's not too bad, or if it is I've got the lovely power of delegation."

"Ah - I'll bet they were." And he smiled, a real smile, because as guilty as he felt for leaving Jack behind, it occurred to him that if he hadn't, they wouldn't have been meeting then. And that would have been upsetting. "So you just pass off the paperwork you don't want to do to staff, is that it?" Teasing a little.

"Not most of it, no. But Owen's got the medical files, Tosh takes care of most of the things relating to the tech. Gwen's been given the task of writing up most of the general reports, and Ianto files everything where it needs to be. There's not really that much left for me to pass off, is there?" Jack asked with a grin.

He shook his head. "No, sounds like you've got it all figured out. Clever - paperwork's more dangerous than alien invasions any day." The Doctor grinned, knowing even as he did that it was entirely subjective, that.

"Normally. Though, of course, the fact that here the invasions just lead to paperwork..." Jack let that thought trail off. "Just means I get stuck with everything extra, sometimes one of the others when it's something I have firsthand experience with."

The Doctor made a bit of a face at that, looking surprised. But then, when was the last time he'd had to deal with the paperwork end of things? Well, UNIT, but that was ages and ages ago..

"I'd think it would be horrible to end up an adventure with paperwork."

"Not much adventuring out here, but not exactly my prefered method of relaxation either. It generally tends to wait until the next day. Unlike some people, one we get something stopped we have to clean up the mess afterwards."

"Oi, I do the best I can." He paused, thinking, arms crossed over his chest in a way that might have made him look miffed if it weren't for the hint of a smile still on his lips. "'Course, I usually get bored after a while. Or chased away. Or... I leave." That happened a lot.

"Of course you do. We don't really have the choice to leave though, until it is finished. Making sure everything's the same as when whatever it was happened. All that sort of thing." Jack told him easily. "Usually not anything around to chase us away either, or we've started a bit early."

"Mm. I guess that's how you've got to do things, here." A shrug from the Time Lord, still mildly ruffled by the reproach about his departure habits. "Got to make sure nobody knows who it was stopped whatever-it-was, and no permanent damage, 'cos you've got to live here." A pause, and he added, "I like my way better," like a petulant child, except that he was, actually, joking. Mostly.

"I'm not to fond of the cleanup myself. Just leads to more problems if it isn't taken care of though. Most of the time it's just the case of some..." Jack let that sentence trail off. He always felt like a hypocrite when he used the retcon, what with the two year gap still a wound in his memory. "Actual cleaning. Not so much in the way of the 'Secret' thing actually. The van's got 'Torchwood' written on the side of it. Very lax on the secret organization thing."

"Ah." The Doctor nodded. "Ought to work on that, really. Not much good being a secret organization if everyone knows who you are, is it?" Almost a joke, really.

"No, but it makes it alot easier to find out about things if people come to us with them. It's not so much that they know what we do, just that we're here." Jack explained to him.

"Hm. I s'pose, yeah." A small smile, and he shrugged. "I like the anonymity more, really. Then again, I sort of do have a habit of tripping over the trouble anyway."

"Not all of us can be gifted with your timing. Anonymity can be a bit on the troublesome side anyway." Jack recalled on incident in particular. "You get people yelling at you that you don't exist, they've looked, and why should they listen to you if you don't exist. The most inopportune moments, too."

"I can see how that would be a problem.. I guess anonymity is only helpful if you're not staying." He shook his head. Was that it? It seemed about right. Anonymity helped keep from getting attached, too. (He'd been more anonymous lately).

"That's true. But. If you aren't staying anyway, it doesn't really hurt to let people know who you are. It can help if you need to pass through again." If nothing else it was good to have someone remember you.

"Maybe... it had its uses. Then again.." He shrugged. "..I've been mentioned on national TV. Rose told me." He smiled faintly, but it was hard to say the name. "At Christmas."

"So I saw. The call for help didn't do much for Ms. Jones. Especially with that phrase that came around after. Calling for medical attention, and then the whispers about her looking tired."

His smile faded at the memory, and he nodded. "Yes, I remember that." No remorse, because she'd had her chance, and chosen the wrong path. At least, he thought so.

"If it makes a difference I don't think you'll be getting any more televised mentions. Although, you may be interested to know that Mickey took over a website on you. A couple years ago." Jack told him simply.

"I'm glad, I think - wouldn't want that to happen again; I wasn't there to see the broadcast anyway.." A pause, and he asked, "A website on me? Hm. Still up, or no?" Since he knew that Mickey wasn't around to maintain it.

"On some archival sites. That's about it though, and I will say that he didn't exactly get your good side." Jack continued on. "A few rather... thought-out comments."

"Somehow, I'm not surprised," he said dryly, then asked, "What comments?" Curious.

Jack looked at him carefully for a few moments before shaking his head slowly. "No."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, frowning. "...why not?"

He should have expected to be questioned about it, but he hadn't really been thinking about it when he brought it up. Jack couldn't think of a good reason not to, besides that he didn't want to. So he stayed silent.

"..Jack?" As much as Jack didn't want to say, the Doctor was curious to know. Thought-out comments about him... well, that could be interesting. Or awful. Whichever.

He grinned and it was a con, because he had no plans to share the comment he'd proof against. "Just realized I can't remember any of them."

Again the Doctor raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm not sure if I believe you." And that was the truth. He had never been good at letting people con him.

He kept the smile because it was something to hide behind. "I don't suppose you'd accept that I just don't want to tell you?"

"Nope," he replied lightly, though he wasn't smiling himself. His tone belied his expression. "Sorry, I won't."

Jack doesn't tell him to find it for himself because there'd be no real sense in that. It would just be prolonging it, and he thinks he can manage that himself. "That's the truth though."

"I did, actually, figure that out." His voice still light, though. "I just want to know. Why won't you tell me?"

"Because it's something I've seen proof against myself. I don't see why I should bother to spread it." For a moment longer he doesn't give in.

"Tell me?" A question and a request at the same time. "If it's not true, then it doesn't make a difference, right?"

Jack closes his eyes, reaching for the entirety of the line. It's his own thought for bringing it up. Opening them he looks at the Doctor, expression blank. "But, the thing is – for a time traveller, he always turns up a bit late. He never saves everyone."

He nearly winces, looking away. And now he smiles, though it isn't as sincere as his frown was. "Now, Jack, that wasn't untrue. You lied." Managed to keep his voice light, if a bit higher than it ought to be.

It's said, and he's the one who wanted to hear it but that's not going to stop him arguing that. "Tell me then, that day in 1941, who didn't you save?"

"The one time." But his smile turned fond instead of bitter. "That one time, everyone lived. Just once." And he had loved it. He'd never felt that since.

"That alone makes it a lie, negates the never." He is firm on that account. An eternal witness to it, for all he'll believe that it can't have been the only time.

"An exception for every rule." A pause. "It feels like so long ago. I don't know that I'll ever have another day like that."

"You're not exactly optimistic about it. There will be." Jack tells him, but what he really means to say is 'this is why I didn't want to tell you that'.

The Doctor nodded, flashed Jack a small smile that was half-felt and half-not. "Yeah. I'm sure there will, someday."

He smiles back, and this one's more real then his last. "Some days." Jack corrects him, twisting the word just enough.

"Plural's a bit optimistic, isn't it?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, but this time he actually was joking.

"Optimistic's good every now and then. I believe I'm entitled to a good mood today." Jack told him with a shrug. "Besides, I've got a good number of days to see. I'd hope more then one of them ends without fatalities."

"Fair enough. Optimistic's good. I like optimistic. Like good days, too." He didn't get many of them. He would be glad to find more.

"I can't imagine there's anyone who doesn't, for whatever their definition of 'good' is. Before long you'll have a little help with them again."

"Right. Absolutely right." He nodded, smiling brightly. Finding his smile.

It wasn't quite the mad grin he remembered, but then it wouldn't ever be, and he had to admit this one had something to it. "Until then though, what now?"

The Doctor thought about that, and didn't lose that smile. "No idea at all. I'm sure we could figure something out."

"I can show you around in here if you'd like, I'd offer to do introductions but you're big on anonymity right now, right?" A brief grin. "We can get out of the business area if you want, I can show you where I may or may not be if you wind up here in the middle of the night."

"Right, that sounds good. All that." He nodded. He felt better than he had in... well, in a long, long time. "Introductions are good, too - if I'll be visiting, and all." Which he would be.

"Not everyone's in the Hub today, but I'll introduce you to who is. Show you around the place in transit, and then head back to 'my place'." Which was a room with a bed and some other things, out of the way in a corner of the hub, really, but that wasn't the point at the moment.

"So we have a plan, then." He smiled a bit at that. Always good to have some idea. "Lead on." Letting Jack direct things was easy enough.

Jack nodded, heading to the office's door and opening it, moving back into the main room. "There's not much in the way of rooms. Almost everything's in the main area, and just a few offshoots." He begins to explain.

The Doctor followed after, keeping an eye on his surroundings. One never knew. "Makes sense enough. Maximizing space, I suppose?" Since humans didn't exactly have Time Lord technology when it came to space.

"Probably some limits due to it being underground. If nothing else it provides a little headroom." He gestures down into a lowered area. "That's more or less the med area. Nothing special down there though."

"Mm. You'd almost have to.. clever, the med room - can't imagine your work gets you injuries the hospitals would be familiar with." Eternally curious, he was looking closely at.. well, everything.

More often then not it was for examining rather then healing but Jack doesn't mention that. "Not really something I've got to worry about, and for the most part the others stay in one piece. I'll still admit you're right though."

"Well, that's good. Having a med room and not having to use it - that's the ticket." He smiled a bit. Thinking of the med room back in the TARDIS, hardly used itself.

"Not for its intended purpose anyway." Jack jokes, but moves on before giving a chance to reply. He stops before a large object in the middle of the room, gesturing to it. "Rift manipulator."

He raises an eyebrow at that, but he doesn't question it, following along and stopping before the thing Jack indicated as a rift manipulator. "..what do you need that for, then?" Playing with rifts, holes in dimensions, any of that sort of thing.. it just worries him these days.

"We don't. It's here, and it's been here. There's no way to take it out without being sure nothing will happen if it does go. I've got instructions for it locked away." He gave the Doctor a serious look. "To be honest, it's been more trouble then anything else, and I'd rather it wasn't here either."

"Good. That's good." That they weren't using it. He was serious as well, looking at the rift manipulator. "It's not something should be touched. So much can go wrong with something like this.."

"Has. For the most part though, it's just there, and the current team, at any rate, know better." Now. But that had been cleaned up. "I'll have to try to figure out something to do with it in the future though."

"Right... I suppose it's not as easy as dismantling it, is it?" He had taken a pair of glasses from his pocket and put them on, examining the machine without touching it.

"No, I doubt it. Some other time I'll show you all the paperwork we've got on it. There's a piece from it locked up to, so it doesn't work right now either way." Jack crossed his arms as he watched the Doctor look it over.

"I'll want to have a look, yeah.. that's good." He meant that it didn't work. He frowned a bit. "Don't think I want to try using the sonic screwdriver on this. Could be a bit sensitive.."

"Might not be the best idea, no. At least wait until you've seen the papers. You can make a day of it." Jack doubted it would take that long, but it was the idea of the thing.

"Yeah, sure. Could be fun," he replied nonchalantly, taking off the glasses and pocketing them. "I'll want to know more about it before I go poking about it, anyway."

"Then the tour can continue for the moment." He nodded, waiting a minute before walking again, onward to the next point of interest. Somewhere above them something launched itself from a perch near the ceiling, and circled the room.

"So it can." He glanced up at the sound of wings, but didn't see anything. "What's up there?" Raising an eyebrow.

Jack glanced upwards but grinned easily when he looked back to the Doctor. "Just Myfanwy." After a second thought he offered up more of an explanation. "The pterodactyl I mentioned earlier."

"A pterodactyl named Myfanwy. Nice." He smiled faintly himself, looking up again. "A pterodactyl in twenty-first century Cardiff... well, I can't say it's exactly unusual for you lot.."

"Like I said, it's not like there was anything else we could do with it. Seems to have adjusted well enough." He shrugged, and after swooping down close to them Myfanwy took back to her perch.

"That's good. 'Least it wasn't a tyrannosaur, right?" Watching Myfanwy for a moment before he turned back to Jack. "I don't get enough chances to look at dinosaurs," he commented with a smile.

"That would have been... Just a little disastrous I think." He doubted they would even have a chance to try to hide it. Would have taked up a lot of room in the Hub too. It would have been a little noticeable. "There's not really a reason you don't though, is there?"

"Just a bit," he agreed, and shrugged at the next question. "Well, just haven't gotten around to it, I suppose.. I really ought to, now that I'm thinking of it. Sometime."

"Make sure you aim early when you do. Save it for the next time you've got impressing to do." Jack joked as he continued walking on, towards the area with the computers.

"Oi, you know, I don't do things just to impress people." Almost defensive, but then he rather ruined it by adding, "Unless, you know, it's necessary. Or really fun."

"I never said you did. Besides, nothing wrong with getting two for one. See your dinosaurs and thoroughly impress someone at the same time."

"Yeah, fair enough." He grinned a bit at that. "Wouldn't mind seeing that time again. You know, I never did spend much time on Earth before humans.. guess I'm too fond of you."

"You also tend to go for civilizations in general." Jack pointed out, before jerking his head upwards. "Unless she's hiding something, from what I've seen dinosaurs weren't very advanced. Feel free to correct me." He'd paused at the far edge of the computer area, someone working on the furthest one.

"Right - civilizations are just more fun. This not to say medieval Europe didn't have its perks..." Joking, as medieval Eruope did have civilization, but... "Dinosaurs could be very advanced - quite advanced, really, for reptiles. Nothing like you'd think from the illustrations, though, really. Bit brighter-colored.." He didn't seem to be paying attention to any one thing in particular, looking around while he spoke.

"I'll keep that in mind." Jack glanced towards the figure, then back to the Doctor. "Ready to meet one of the two who failed to listen when I told them to take today off?" His voice was light as he asked, gesturing slightly to the dark haired woman on the computer.

"Well, why not?" he asked, smiling slightly. "Good to know your staff doesn't take you too seriously."

"Definitely not on that count, in any case." Jack almost laughed, before turning and heading the rest of the way down.

"No one should ever take you too seriously," he teased, following down. He paused when he saw the woman on the computer more clearly, almost stopping. "..I know you," he said flatly, actually addressing her.

It took her a few moments to pull out from her absorption in her work, but once she had Toshiko Sato looked at him with mild confusion. "I.. Don't believe I can say the same of you."

Jack stood to the back, watching the rather unexpected turn of events. He hoped the Doctor's knowing her was a good thing as opposed to a bad one.

"But I do. Oh, that's brilliant." He grinned, then shook his head. "I looked different, then. The lab. That poor pig they strapped into a suit - you remember, don't you?"

She searched her memory until something clicked. "London." She'd played innocent in her knowledge there, had been there almost by accident, but played along to see what was going on. "But if you looked different, how am I supposed to know...?"

"I'm the Doctor. Well, different Doctor, then, sort of, but still the same man. Different face. You do remember. When the ship crashed by the Thames. I came to look at what was in the ship - the pilot. Leather coat, sonic screwdriver - you know, that guy." Still grinning, absolutely like the madman he was.

Recognition registered in her eyes. "You were him?" She remembered clearly enough now, and the reaction when the pig had been shot. But for now she could not hold back her curiosity. "But...how?"

"Oh, that's a long story. I could explain, but you wouldn't understand. Brilliant to see you again, though. Working for Jack, even. Good coincidence."

"I was working for him then." It's an admittance, and she hesitates for a moment before continuing it. "I... I was undercover, in a way. That's why I seemed so...uninformed then. A disguise." Toshiko doesn't ask again, but it's obvious she is still curious.

He blinked at that, and shook his head. "Right. You were playing dumb. Not half bad at it, though I figured you were smart." A pause, and he added, almost as an aside, "It's so weird meeting people I knew when I wasn't... well, this me. Weird."

"Ah?" She wasn't quite sure what response to give to that. A glance toward the screen of her computer, and then she looked back to him. "Toshiko Sato." She told him, because she'd just had her last name on her tag there.

He grinned again, tangent resolved (apparently). "Toshiko Sato," he repeated, "Good to meet you. Again."

"The same to you," She nodded to him, a moment or two later continuing with an afterthought. "Doctor." To show that she'd been listening.

"That's me." Acknowledging, and he nodded. "Keep up the good work, then. And, you know, don't let him let leadership go to his head." Nodding to Jack. A joke, really. Well, inspiring a little dissention in the ranks never hurt.

"Right." A smile to accompany it, and she meant it to both comments. She turned back to her screen, and after a few moments lost herself in her work again.

Jack rolled his eyes, but grinned. "I see I had plenty to do with this round of introductions."

He grinned at Jack. "I know - very helpful, you were." Cheered by the encounter, he was beginning to feel a bit more optimistic about Jack's team.

"Time to move on then? Two more places of interest, or we can hunt down Ianto and see if you've met him too." Jack joked to him, but in the back of his mind hoped that he hadn't.

"Sure. Whichever's best.. people are fun." The name didn't ring any bells, but then, sometimes they didn't. He really was better with faces.

"This way then, we'll check the archives. Either he'll be down there, or we'll get one more place checked off the tour." He decided, starting in the direction.

"Archives? Sounds exciting either way." Pleasantly, he followed Jack along. Archives meant files, which meant information, and that was fun. Well, for him.

"It's not all papers." Jack explained as he moved easily through the hub. "It's where we keep the things we find too. There's an area for the definitely dangerous items too." The freezers were there too, but Jack didn't mention them.

"Oh? Weapons and things, then, too?" Considering that. Well, of course they'd have them. It would have been silly to expect them not to, but..

"Not so much weapons. A resurrection glove, something with two pieces that show the past and future, a dogon third eye. Things that shouldn't be used, most of them with hands on reasons for avoidance. Locked up."

"Good idea, then. Keep them out of people's hands." He nodded. That was sensible. He was infinitely glad that this Torchwood seemed to have some grasp of common sense.

Jack opened a door, noting the room below was lit already and starting on the stairs. "That's the general idea." The problem with it was that locks came with keys, and there were times when you didn't think.

The Doctor followed, looking around and over the rail on the stairs. "Good general idea to have, that."

"The only problem with it, is the nature of locks." It's the closest he'd come to an admission, and he quickened his pace down the stairs. He glanced around the room and saw a man filing to the right of the stairs.

"Yes, they do like to by opened, don't.." He didn't get to finish the sentence, becaus he saw the man there and froze. Not looking anywhere near as pleased as he had when meeting Toshiko.

What the hell was it with Jack's staff?

When the Doctor cut off Jack turned back, stopping as he saw his expression. He closed his eyes for a moment, cursing mentally and assuming the worst. It would figure he would have seen the other man at Torchwood One. "Doctor?" He asked, holding onto the thought that it could have been something else, though he was clueless as to what it might have been.

"Torchwood One. He was there, wasn't he?" His voice was tight, and he didn't even pretend to address Ianto. "Then. He was there then." When they had torn open reality and he had lost her.

"Yes." Jack told him, because there was no point in saying otherwise, or trying to explain things just now. There was something of a distaste in his own voice as well, he wasn't to fond of that fact himself. Ianto continued his filing purposefully, not looking in their direction.

"Right. I thought so." He couldn't think what else to say. To condemn him? Ask if he had anything to do with it? The words wouldn't come - the world's most talkative - well, only - Time Lord was at a loss for words.

He paused, but after a few moments found a question. "Is that a problem?" Jack knew it was, but there wasn't anything else to ask. He wouldn't begin his defense until it was asked for, that way it didn't look as if he doubted it himself.

"Yes." He wouldn't lie. He wasn't stupid enough to think the answer wasn't written on his face. "It's a problem." Obviously. "People died because of what they did there." He could hear his temper flaring, but almost didn't feel it. The numbing, cold feeling he got when he thought of that.

"I know." Jack paused. "He knows. That doesn't mean he had anything to do with it himself." His voice was calm but firm, as he kept his eyes on the Doctor.

"What did they have him doing, then? Taking stock?" It was obvious that as far as the Doctor was concerned, anyone in Torchwood One had responsibility for that incident. He recognized that it was irrational - that there was no good or evil directly, and he certainly was not the paragon of good nor was everyone in Torchwood One evil, but he couldn't help his reaction. He couldn't.

"Nothing related to the hole or the Cybermen." Voice flat, Jack continued. "Low level fieldwork, errands and coffee." He'd heard the runthrough himself, and passed it along. "If you're desperate for a reason you can continue on, and believe me, I have all the reason I'd need to throw him out, from years ago, but not from that. You can't go by association. If you insist on that I have another story for you."

It took him a moment to find words again, looking away. "Right. Fine. As you say." He didn't think he would ever be able to let go of his resentment for them, though. Torchwood One. The ones who had taken what he held as dear to him, had almost destroyed the universe, to say nothing of their own planet..

There was a silence, and while Jack thought for something else to say another voice spoke up. "You lost someone." Ianto was still moving the folders idly, not looking up. Taking advantage of the pause in speech. Something understanding in his voice.

The Doctor flinched at the words, looking at Ianto - the first time he'd really looked at him since recognizing him. "Yes. I did." His voice tight again. Not out of anger, this time.

He put another folder into its place between two others, and continued. "I did too. Not completely there though. I found her, after, halfway through the cybernization process, somehow alive." Ianto showed no will to look up from the files. "Her mind was too far though, but I didn't realize that. She was just Lisa. I took one of the upgrade units, to keep her alive, but didn't have the power for it. I managed to get a job here, he didn't want anything to do with Torchwood One, but I didn't let up. He had a reason not to. I snuck the unit and Lisa into the basement, brought a doctor who I thought could help get her back to normal..." He trailed off, gathering thoughts and pushing them away at once, still filing. "In the end she killed two people..." A pause. "Three. One more then once. In the end she was killed. If you want to hold something against me, there's the better reason."

He stared for a long moment, words failing him as he listened to what the other man was saying. He looked away, though, eventually. "I'm sorry." That, more softly. He wasn't sure if he was apologizing for what had happened, or for his own behavior. Maybe both, maybe neither. It was hard to tell.

Ianto nodded, facing away from them. He kept his face hidden in the pretense of work. "Torchwood One as a whole entity has reason to be hated." When he spoke again his voice was quiet.

"They caused... irreperable damage. To people, and to the very fabric of this universe. They did reprehensible things." A pause. "I don't blame you. I won't hate you for what they did. But you'll understand if I don't trust you immediately." He didn't raise his voice, as soft as before. Not angry, something else. Sad.

"I wouldn't want you to." He paused as another folder was slotted into place, moved onto another drawer. "Ianto Jones." He introduced himself deliberately.

"I'm the Doctor," he replied, nodding. Glancing at the other briefly. "Nice to meet you." A bit blandly, because he wasn't sure yet if it was or not.

Ianto froze, his hand halfway back from leaving the folder. A moment of recognition of the name. "And you." Once he'd regained his composure he filed away the last folder, turning to head for the exit of the room, still not quite facing them.

The Doctor sighed, leaning against the railing of the stairs he was standing at the bottom of and running a hand through his hair. Not sure how to feel about this. How was he supposed to feel? Confused seemed like a good word for it.

"I'm beginning to think it's a good thing the other two aren't here." Jack spoke up after what seemed like a long time to him, trying to keep his voice light, but failing.

"..I'm not very good at getting along with people, apparently," he remarked a bit dryly. He had been feeling so good ten minutes ago. He really should have known better.

"No... I should have just told you earlier about him." It's a guilty admittance, and Jack looked at the Doctor when he gave it. "Owen worked in a hospital and Gwen was on the police, before they came. Due warning I guess."

"Right. It's.." Deep breath. Trying to force back the feelings that thinking about Torchwood One brought back. "It's fine. I was surprised." Obviously. Way to go, Doctor.

"What do you want to do now?" Jack's question was an offer, in its own way. The uppermost layer made up of the obvious, of in relation to the tour.

"Um... I don't know," he admitted, shaking his head. Hands in his pockets again, trying to think. Had he really needed the reminder of that..? Now he was off-balance again.

"Why don't we finish the tour some other time? You've already seen just about everything. I'll show you where I'm staying, and you can look around down here whenever you want." Because the last thing Jack needed to do was show him the morgue and the cells on top. "Unless you've had your fill of this place for the day."

"No, that's fine." He smiled faintly, though it was a bit forced. It was, at least, there. "I'm not just going to leave because of one thing." Not least of all because leaving on a bad note would have him thinking about the bad note until the next time he saw Jack...

"Right. Back upstairs then, and to the left after that." Jack's voice was relieved somewhat, and he made his way the few steps back towards the Doctor and the stairs.

"Alright." A nod, and he was ascending the stairs again, waiting semi-patiently for Jack at the top. It was difficult to call him 'patient' about anything, really.

Jack moved after him, going a little faster so as to catch up, and taking the stairs two at a time. "Tucked back in a corner somewhat, don't expect too much." He said to say something.

The Doctor nodded, but he waited for Jack rather than try to find the room himself. "If I was expecting opulence, I'd think I had the wrong Jack," he said with a shrug.

He led the way, moving the rather short distance to another door. "Fair enough. Though not to say that a little extravagance can't be fun."

"Can be." A shrug - he never was one for that kind of thing - following him to the door. "I've never been a fan, myself." Common things held more meaning, after all. "Well, not usually."

Jack pushed the door open, flipping a light switch. The room featured for the most part a bed and a desk, a chair and a door to, presumably a closet. On the desk sat a pair of cofee cups, steaming. "Most of the time, no. There's not really a point in anything if its constant."

"Fair enough - some constant things are alright, though." He looked around briefly. "Even if they are a bit... would the TARDIS count as extravagant? I'm never sure.."

"Maybe. Depends on the viewpoint? Though I'm rethinking the comment in the first place." Jack told him, sitting on the bed and reaching for a cup.

"I think humans think it's a bit extravagant. They don't spend their lives in it." He smiled slightly, leaning against the wall.

"There's an answer for you then." He gestured toward the other cup. "I think you've got a peace offering. Or I looked particularly thirsty."

He raised an eyebrow at it. "How do I know it's not poison?" He asked, but he was joking a bit, and picked it up anyway.

"I know this may be a strange concept, but no one here has a reason to poison you." Jack joked back, leaning forward. "Also no way of telling who'd end up with which, even if."

"You're that sure?" He smirked, took a sip of the coffee. "Could end up like that scene, in the movie.. the hero and the Sicilian, trading cups when both were poisoned.."

After he'd taken a drink of his own, Jack nodded. "Pretty sure. People tend to get annoyed when you come after them once they've poisoned you. No idea why." A grin. "This stuff's too good to poison anyway."

"They do tend to get awfully upset, don't they?" He shrugged. "Fair enough. It's not bad."

Jack looked for a moment as if he was going to object, but shrugged it off. "Like they thought they could just do it, then not have to deal with them again."

"Poisons usually have that effect, so I guess we can't fault them.." The Time Lord seemed unruffled. Or at least apparently unruffled. Something like that.

"I guess you're right about that." He put the cup back down for a minute. "Though I've had a problem with people doubting something they've seen is true, just because it takes a little longer than usual."

"Ah.." A nod. Understanding, more or less. "..there's a bit of a delay?" He didn't ask it rudely, or at least not as much as he could have. Serious.

"Sometimes, it depends. There was only once that really caused problems. Most of the time it's just a few minutes, maybe ten tops." He estimated, since he didn't normally have a chance to check a clock ahead of time. "Normally less."

"Right.. that makes sense. Interesting failsafe.." Well, that was a way to make a good thing out of a shitty situation, right? Sort of?

Jack shook his head, he'd had time to think about this. "Not a failsafe, not as far as I can tell. The time changes in relation to the severity of damage done. Bullets, for instance, usually clean, quick. Just a hole to heal. Pushed off a building onto a cement bench for a broken back leaves a bit more to fix, takes a little longer. Death by stampede was especially nasty, lots of bones and bruising, little things adding up. Not sure exactly how long that one took. The only time it's been over an hour was..."

The Doctor tried - and failed - not to look a bit uncomfortable with the subject, though he nodded at the end. "...was when?" he asked. He had a sneaking suspicion, just a little tickle in the back of his mind, that he would probably regret asking that question.

"A run in with this giant...beast, that had a deadly shadow. Not quite sure how that worked exactly." Jack admitted, before continuing. "It was a more or less instant thing. Couldn't have him running around Cardiff so I took a gamble, and it ended up working nicely. Stood in the shadow for a good minute or two before it'd had too much. My reasoning on that is it was a bit more abstract a death, something other then a wound to fill in after, and the extended time period might have made it count more then one."

The Doctor listened quietly - which he managed, for once, without even fidgeting with anything. "That makes sense - the reasoning, I mean. Can't say I agree with the idea of standing in a killer shadow and just hoping you come back from it, though." Frowning, worried-but-not, in a way.

"Can't say there was much choice in the matter as far as alternate methods of action. At that point I'd died enough to be fairly sure that I'd be back afterwards." He shrugged, it had worked out after all. "Couple hundred times..."

"Just because you can-- ah, nevermind." He didn't want to sound like anyone's mother, especially not just because he maybe felt just a touch guilty over being part of the cause for Jack's immortality (he had lived long enough to know that it wasn't a gift), and even larger part of its continuance. "You know, I think they did that on The X-Files. Well, minus your role.."

"Well I can't say I thought of consulting the television for a fix in the situation." A slight grin at that, then a bit flatly. "Doesn't mean that I should go around dieing? It's not exactly something I pencilled in on my schedule. If there's anyone to blame for the number it's the two who recruited me."

"The episode was a bit.." He waved a hand as if that would finish the sentence and ended up with, "Different. Physics and black holes and they got it completely wrong." He sounded vaguely disgusted with some far-away and years-ago television writers who clearly had not taken classes in applied physics in their college years.

"It's good to know you don't plan on it," he said dryly. "I suppose working for Torchwood does sort of increase the likelihood of it happening, though."

"Sorry to hear that then, guess I'll stick to making it up as I go along. Would've been interesting to get the reactions when I assigned them a show to watch." Jack narrowed his eyes slightly. "Look, it happens. It was less Torchwood itself and more the fact that the girls seemed to have a very sadistic streak."

"Well, you could still - it wasn't a bad episode. I don't remember where I saw it, though - probably the TARDIS." She could, after all, be convinced every now and again to pick up basic cable. He raised an eyebrow at Jack's last words. "Sadistic streak?" he repeated, as much double checking as asking for details.

"That's what it looked like to me. Met'em when I had a jug more or less sticking out of my stomach. There was the normal bit of cat and mouse, I flirt, they threaten me with guns. Goes a bit foggy and when I wake up they've got me tied to a chair. Highlights of the event included asking about you and shooting a hole in my head so they could ask me why I couldn't die. Admittedly the relationship got a little better as time went by."

He winced at that. "Well, they seem like fun types," he said, a hint of sarcasm to hide surprise and a hint of disgust for people of that sort. "How long did they..?"

"Ask about you? Can't say they ever stopped. Eventually they realized I was clueless and gave up. The actual interrogation was over that day, and they were there for the next, ten, fifteen years I think."

"..I meant how long they kept you there," he admitted a bit more softly, adding, somewhat lightly but a bit sardonically, berating himself, "I keep getting you into trouble. Sorry."

"It was my own mouth. A few too many casual references in conversations. Don't worry about it." He told him, speaking slowly. "Didn't keep me long at all, and so you know? The first time they offered I turned them down."

A brief pause, and the Doctor nodded - accepting that, because he wasn't going to argue the point. (Thinking that, that he got people into trouble, wasn't anything new, not really). "Why?" he asked, honestly surprised by the end of that.

"Well let's see, they killed me to make a point, made it clear that they considered you a threat to the empire and- oh yeah. Gave a kid from off-world the death penalty for petty theft. Not telling me this was going to happen until _after_ I'd brought him in And by telling, I mean blowing his head off. Wasn't exactly eager to spend more time in their company, no." He displayed a definite tone of distaste at the last part.

A pause, and he nodded. "..no, I don't blame you for that." Tone a bit more serious. That was... he could hardly imagine it. Could only just, and only by virtue of having been so many places and seen so many awful things.

"Now, I'll assume you're curious as to why I'd go back." Because at the moment, he would be. "Can't say it's for a reason that would be anyone's first guess."

"I was a bit curious about that, yes." His own distaste for Torchwood aside, he couldn't imagine why Jack would want to work for them after they'd spent a few years repeatedly killing him.

"It was less then a week after the whole interrogation thing. The night after my first 'mission'. I'd effectively walked out on the whole operation, and to be honest I was sitting in a bar. Late 1800s don't really have many other recreational facilities. A little girl came out of nowhere, and more or less forced, get this, a tarot card reading on me."

"A tarot card reading?" He raised an eyebrow at that, but he was curious. "Those are usually a bit rubbish, aren't they?" Slight disdain for fairytale fortune-tellers, there.

"Exactly, which is why I didn't really want to have anything to do with it. She ignored me and did it anyway." He paused for a moment. "When she was finished she told me 'He's coming, the one you're looking for but the century will turn twice before you find each other'. I laughed at her before I realized she was serious."

"Ah, well..." He thought about that for just a second. "A roundabout reference to me, or is there someone else you were looking for?" He asked it jokingly because asking seriously would have brought back that bit of guilt, just the touch of it.

"Well you're the one that's shown up, two 'turns of a century' later. Didn't actually ask for verification at the time, but I assumed." Jack told him easily.

"So I have. Suppose I'm convenient like that.." A pause, and he was considering the evidence. "I wonder who she was." Curious, both because it was his nature and because... well, the last time he'd run into a fortune teller who was (sort of) right, she'd turned out to be from the future.

"I don't know, but one of her cards had my face on it. I've seen her again, since. Still the same, still extermely good at what she does. Doesn't hurt anyone, just does the whole fortune telling bit."

"Probably not human, then," he commented offhandedly. "I wonder how she would know the future, though - her name didn't happen to be Vanessa, did it?" It would have been a joke, if Jack had any idea who Vanessa was. Would've worked better with Rose, he reflected a bit sadly.

"She doesn't have a name, I don't think." Jack told him with a shrug. "Not sure what she is, though we have some mythos thanks to some research we had to do recently..."

"Ah - good, just checking. Vanessa was... long story." He shrugged. "What's this mythos, then?"

He opened his mouth to speak, grinned for a minute instead, and shook his head. "I'll save that story for another day."

The Doctor looked at him for a moment, incredulous. "Oh, that's not fair," he complained, looking mildly cross. (He was joking. Mostly.)

"It's a bit less believeable then the card reading. If I gave you the whole history tonight, what's there going to be left for later?" He asked innocently.

He sighed. "What if I forget to ask later?" he queried, looking skeptical. Knowing very well that he wouldn't, of course, forget to ask.

"Trust me, it'll come back up. You haven't met everyone yet, and once you have the topic will float to the top of your mind. Whether you realize it or not."

"Will it?" Now he was really curious, and Jack was being very unfair about indulging his curiosity. "I'll have to take your word for it, then?"

"Definitely." Jack assured him. "Rather not hamper any more first impressions then have already been. If I didn't want to tell you something, I'd tell you."

He nodded finally. "You're just making sure I'll come back to finish puzzling out your mysteries," he accused, though jokingly. He would come back anyway.

Spreading his arms in mock defeat, Jack grinned. "You've got me. Alert as ever, aren't you?" He joked back, not admitting that that was one of the reasons, just in case.

"Well, I wasn't going to become less clever over time," he replied, smiling anyway. If he knew it really was one of the reasons, it wouldn't have mattered... he wouldn't break his promise. Not this time.

"Not like I had a definite way of knowing that." Jack pointed out, still joking for the most part. "Now, given the information you have so far, can you guess why I went back?"

"Well, it should've been obvious, I'd hope." A bit petulant, but he was quite defensive of his brilliance. Mainly because he was brilliant, and downplaying it did no one any good, least of all himself. "And I really haven't the slightest. Which really doesn't say much for my brilliance, I'm afraid, but..."

"I'll keep it in mind for the future. Not even a guess though? I'm disappointed in you." He joked. "To be honest it didn't make much sense to begin with though. The short of it's the fact that suddenly I had a century to kill.":

"So it was just to waste time?" he asked, not totally sure whether that was a little bit sad or a little bit funny, so he settled for both.

"Mostly. It was also a way to keep an eye out, and to avoid getting labelled an 'enemy of the Empire', which would've been a bit annoying if I'd stayed in Cardiff." There had been the fact that they'd also been true in saying he'd need money there.

"I can see where they might have a problem with that - they don't take kindly when people they've exiled just sort of... stay." He paused and added, "Then again, they exiled me in the eighteen-hundreds and I just keep coming back."

"Not quite exiled, but I imagine between the two of them they would've gotten creative." Something of a smile. "So I've heard. Used to be in the records. Though, I must admit my disapointment in the fact that I missed the period of travel where you were, apparently, with a nude. According to the record, anyway."

"She wasn't literally nude.. Victorians, show your ankles and you were practically watching a pornography," he commented, shaking his head and looking most put-upon. Well, he was looking that was on purpose, and grinned after. "The 'naked' one was Rose. Bad timing to be wearing a skirt, but we were sort of aiming for a different century - wound up in Scotland." The last sentence he managed in the Scottish accent he'd appropriated during the trip.

"And, as usual, didn't think to check the date before you went out." He scolded lightly. "Don't you ever learn? Judging from what I've read, or alternatively heard, you don't have to answer that. You were described as 'quite mad' yourself."

"Oi, I thought we were in the 1950s," he said, and he tried to be defensive, but it failed when he grinned. "Quite mad, hm? Well, that's nothing new... nice of them to call me mad after I saved them all, though. Knighting me was a nice touch. I liked that part."

"They left out that part. A knighting before your exile then, I guess so they couldn't say they owed you? I think it's usually the lack of visible fear during the danger that gets you the 'mad' title."

"I suppose - it was, actually, directly before they exiled me, and they knighted Rose as well... which I suppose must have been confusing for history." A pause, and he grinned at that, the same trademark mad grin that got the Victorians thinking he was insane. "Well, I suppose if you think that finding danger exciting is a bad thing... and, alright, maybe when I licked the door."

"You licked the door." Repeating it for clarification. "Is, that a new thing then? I don't remember you having a taste for doors before but... Or is it just a case of licking?" Obviously utterly distracted by this new information.

The Doctor shrugged. "I was checking up on a theory, actually... it was fascinating, really, they used mistletoe oil and worked it right into the wood, stopped the werewolf from getting in-- there was a werewolf, by the way. I didn't know for sure 'til I tasted it." As if that was something entirely ordinary.

Jack gave that a few moments to settle into his mind. "Tasted the door, right?" Once more to clarify. "Come to think of it there was a mention of you 'tasting' something on that Sycorax ship too..."

"Ah, right-- I was checking what they were using in their control matrix." He made a face. "It was blood - well, human blood, A+. Not the best taste in the universe, that's sure."

"Now, tell me. Did the opportunity just not come up while I was around, or have you just gained some sort of oral fixation?" A bit of heavy teasing for good measure.

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Oral fixation? Don't think it's quite that.." A pause for good measure, "Though I will admit my last regeneration was a bit less.." He waved a hand to indicate their conversation, "Tactile."

"Oh?" Jack couldn't help but grin. "I'll keep that in mind. Though I'll suggest that you don't lick any doors around here. They're not really cleaned as often as they might need to be.

"I try not to lick the doors unless I have a reason to," he told him, as if reassuringly, then smiled again. "But... yes, I suppose that might have had something to do with my exile." A pause, and, "Well, and the accent. Apparently it's witchcraft if I can change my voice... is that logic off to you, or is it just me?"

"The logic is off some, I'll admit. But then again, 1800s you said, right? Doesn't that really say it all?" He hadn't spent long there admittedly, but appearing in the middle of a crowded street had resulted in some very fast talking on his arrival.

"Fair enough. Superstitious time, but... really, was no one else in that time able to pretend to be someone else? All I did was use a Scottish accent for a bit.. sort've borrowed it." He shrugged, clearly confused by Victorian precepts. Then again...

"Well, I'd imagine generally people don't want you to pretend to be someone else. It makes it look like you're hiding something. I'm going to assume at some point you forgot to keep borrowing it?" Jack asked.

"Well, things got a bit.. complicated, and I think I mentioned the werewolf, and.. yes, I forgot to keep borrowing it," he admitted. "I was more surprised when they didn't realize I'd been borrowing the name, too, but there you are.."

"It's amazing how many people don't realize it when you're borrowing a name." He agreed, calling to mind his personal experience with it. "You must've stopped borrowing it at some point, seeing as you're in the records as the Doctor."

"Oh, yes - I only really used to to get in the door.. figuratively speaking, of course, we were on a road at the time." A shrug. "It's a bit tricky, trying to remember aliases and accents and whatnot. I think that I much prefer just being the Doctor."

"And since you normally end up in the same amount of trouble at the end of the day, it can be that much less." He realized, in the back of his mind that he hadn't told him his name was stolen. It would probably be better not to bring it up, he'd used it longer then his own anyway.

"Just so - and as for the name I borrowed for that little adventure, I think he would probably just as soon not have me stealing it on him..." He paused and added, "Also, people seem to think the name John Smith is a bit suspicious. Maybe they've got me confused with the book character?"

"Well, it is a little on the uninventive side, you've got to admit. Not much flair to it, and it's a marriage away from 'John Doe'." He shrugged. "More filler then anything, I think."

"Well, at least it's easy to remember. And forgettable, which in certain circumstances is exceptionally useful."

"True. Not quite as catchy as 'the Doctor' is. Though if you did manage to keep it consistent, I can imagine it would've been a hassle for people talking about their friend John."

"I think just about everyone's got a friend named John, haven't they? ..well, not me, I don't think, but then..." A pause. "D'you think, if I'd kept it consistent, I wouldn't end up on the internet? I have had to erase myself off the internet before. It's annoying, really."

"Well, I know someone who has, as of our last meeting, called himself John. Went a bit more creative on the last name though. I think there's really only one way you're going to stay off of the internet Doctor..."

"Ah, see? Then it's just me who hasn't." Joking, then, "Well, I suppose dying or disappearing would be the only options, realistically... not that either of those things are anything I plan on having happen. But it seems I can't escape notice here." He grinned. "Wouldn't want to."

"Well, I was going to suggest getting rid of the internet, so you've got a third option there. There's just the one site now though, really. Besides-" A brief pause. "It's not like it's hard to run a wipe through if you want to."

"That'd be a bit tricky.. anyway, major interference, that - and I don't think anyone would be too quick to thank me for it." He smiled a little. "Nah - too much work. I could, sure, but why bother? If I wanted to keep things quiet, I'd be a bit more covert."

"And as I'm not exactly in the position to discuss keeping things 'covert'..." He let that thought end. "Though I imagine one day you'll end up finding people posing for pictures with the TARDIS and rethink the wipe..."

He frowned at that, just a little. "At that point, yeah, definitely reconsidering. Just have to hope it never gets to that point." He shrugged slightly. The Doctor didn't much care about people knowing about him, but... taking pictures? Honestly?

"They'd probably start noticing the 'free for use of public' sign too." Jack pointed out, and made a mental note to, sometime in the future find someone pull it off as a prank.

"You're going to have me a bit paranoid, now. I'm just glad most don't even notice her.." Her being, of course, the TARDIS. These days there was only one 'her' for him.

"You shouldn't have anything to worry about. If you park it around the same place you did when we came to refuel, maybe a little to one side, you could even keep an eye out from down here."

"Right. That would probably be a good idea... just to be on the safe side. Makes the commute a bit easier, too." He smirked at that. He figured he could find his way back to Torchwood, but... really, if you can just park on the door..

"And it gives me some warning that you're coming, so if there's anything that needs finishing, It can be rushed." Though for the most part there wasn't much that actually happened in the hub itself.

"Right. Because I think we've covered the lack of patience issue I seem to have.." He was joking, even if it was just slightly true. Besides, no one liked to visit someone and be ignored, did they?

"On the other hand I seem to have gained patience in bulk somewhere along the line. Though if we picked some dates, that might help with clearing a schedule, even if there's then the fact that you need to hit them." The problem with setting dates beforehand, Jack mused, is that if the Doctor missed by a bit, it would make good exercise for his own patience.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow and asked, "You're sure you're not overestimating my ability to keep a date?" He had no illusions about the TARDIS's slight affinity for... misplacing him.

"That's the only flaw with the plan, really." Jack admitted, grinning. "While I'm sure you normally end up where it is you need to be, that would probably end up being somewhen or where else."

"Exactly... and it wouldn't do for me to show up twenty years before this conversation.." He shrugged. "Could lead to some interesting circumstances, but I think I'll as soon pass."

"Lots of answering the same questions over again." A thoughtfull pause. "and possible utilization of retcon, which would be a bit more difficult to obtain seeing as I wasn't in charge then."

"Well, yes.. and potential enormous damage to the timeline, which is neither fun nor a bright idea.." He sounded as if he was musing over it. "The retcon would, really, be the least of our problems."

"Oh, remember it or not, the timeline doesn't take to being fussed about with." He smiled anyway, though. "I think that being spontaneous might work best in the end."

"Also less explaining to do on my end if something needs to be done outside of the hub. No alerting the current threat that they'll need to put whatever they're doing on hold, I'm booked for the day." He joked.

"Right, exactly - although you know, just once, I'd like to see a reaction to that." He grinned, thinking for a moment before adding, "On a second thought - might not work out so well."

"Probably wouldn't do anything they weren't going to in the first place." Jack pointed out with a smile. "Probably just laugh in my face. Next time we've got something inside the hub I'll give it a try and save a tape for you."

"Well, yes, but we'd probably still want to stop them..." He shrugged. "Appreciated, thanks. Just need a bit of a laugh every now and again.." Now more than ever, really.

"Be worth the reaction from anyone else around, too. No problem, anything. I'll see if there's anything entertaining stashed away for you too." A thoughtful pause. "Or you could always try watching anyone but Ianto try to work the coffee machine."

"Are they incapable?" he asked, amused and curious. It was small-talk, really, but he could appreciate it. He'd been alone a long while - even the small-talk was good.

"Incapable? No-not really. Incapable of making coffee in that thing though...definitely. I'm not so hot with it myself." It was a mystery really. No one else had ever been able to make it work, or else he'd consider placing the blame on Ianto tampering with it.

"Hm. Could be amusing, but I'm afraid the only way I'd get much from it would be is if it was you trying to work it." Teasing just a touch. He couldn't help it - he didn't much know anyone else there.

"Some other time I'll make another futile attempt then, just for you." Jack promised with a smile. He needed to take another shot at it again anyway. It had been a long fall from the time he could manage to turn on almost everything he came across.

"Should be fun. I won't let you forget that, you know." He set down the now-cool cup of coffee he'd been sort of avoiding drinking. He didn't like coffee as much in this regeneration as his last, and there were more important things.

"Of course not. By the time you go you'll have a checklist to come back with." Leaning back slightly. "Of course if something were to happen to the coffee machine before then, say, escaped weevil, maybe a hoix finding it's way it..."

"I'll have to write them all down once I get back to the TARDIS," he said, nodding. Raising an eyebrow at the speculation. "And I suppose you would have absolutely nothing to do with that, hmm?"

Jack shot him a hurt look. "Who, me?" Punctuating an innocent expression with a grin. "I never make offers I have no intent to follow through with. But things happen."

"Oh, of course not," he replied dryly, trying not to roll his eyes (really). "So if the next time I come here, you're out one coffee machine, I should just assume that 'something happened' and you had nothing to do with it?"

"What you don't know is that the sanity of the team is hinged on that coffee. If the next time you come 'something' has happened to it, all you'll need to do is see whether or not they've incited a rebellion and decided I should room with Janet."

The Doctor chuckled at that. "Janet?" A pause, and he asked, "You're keeping them in line with coffee? What d'you put in it?" Teasing, honestly.

"Our live-in weevil, more or less." Jack told him with a shrug, before leaning forward, conspirationally. "You want the secret?" A pause for dramatic effect. "Caffiene"

"You've got a live-in weevil?" Perplexed by that, and he sighed at Jack's 'great secret'. "Oh, is that all?" he asked, in a complaining tone, "I thought it would be something a bit more fun."

"Well the fact that I can't actually work the coffee maker makes it a little hard to put anything into the coffee without raising suspicions. Besides, it's more fun this way." He flashed the Doctor a smile. "Not to mention the fact that I drink the coffee too."

"Ah, I can see how that would complicate things if you tried to put something in it.." He nodded, pretending as if he were taking this seriously, "It's generally thought of as a good idea to only poison other people's drinks."

"And I think actual poison might make them a bit touchy. One staged revolt was more then enough for me." Jack said jokingly. "Better not to tempt them into another."

"Just a little bit, right?" He tried to sound more skeptical than amused, but the equation ended up inverted. "Sounds like a good enough plan. I try never to incite rebellions. They never go well. Er, unless they're necessary. In which case..."

"You tend to do most of the work for the rebellers, and may or may not personally deal with the rebellees." Jack finished for him. "Which is definitely not the case here."

"Oh, no. In this instance, I think I would just have to.. stay on the sidelines and watch what happens. No offense, but it could be hilarious."

"Watching a pack of coffee deprived workaholics put me into a cell with a weevil." He tried to look skeptical and failed miserably. "Wasn't aware that was your idea of entertainment."

He shrugged, with an exaggeratedly innocent expression. "Well, you know, I take what I can get... and that's not usually my idea of fun, but it's you, Jack, so..."

"You'll make an exception." He couldn't help grinning. "How sweet. Though I imagine after they're finished, their attention'd turn to you."

"..oh, that would be trouble, wouldn't it? I wouldn't want to end up sharing a cell with you and Janet."

"No, Janet's not exactly the best conversationalist, and our cells are on the higher end of the 'difficulty to escape' bracket."

"I would assume. Deadlock seal, or just making it easy for me?"

"Well, technically pockets normally tend to be emptied before anyone gets tossed into a cell, so that wouldn't really matter. To answer your question though, no deadlock, but the system's a bit specific."

"Ah. Well, that makes sense. Can't expect them to think to check my pockets during a rebellion, though, hm?"

"Maybe not, but you never know. They can be thorough when they want to be."

"Let's hope for our sakes that if that ever happens, they don't want to be, then."

"Oh, we'll be able to get out either way. No matter how thorough they are I've got something in place to keep from getting locked in my own cells. Just causes a bit of annoyance to get the system back online after."

"Well... bit of annoyance versus being locked in a cell with you and a weevil.. I think I'll take the annoying route," he said, a bit tauntingly.

"That count as you volunteering to fix the system back up after I shoot the panel?" Jack challenged. "Instead you'll just be in the hub at large, with me, a weevil, and rebellious workaholics."

"Absolutely not - your system, you can fix it. Unless it's clever enough to get my attention... doubt it." He shook his head. "That sounds like it would be an excellent time for me to find the TARDIS..."

"Then it looks like you'd be spending awhile with Janet and me. Wouldn't hurt to give the rebels some time to cool off." Jack joked, grinning for a moment. "Unless you planned to commandeer my gun and hit the panel yourself."

"You know how I feel about guns." A pause, and he realized abruptly that no, he probably didn't - he'd become significantly less tolerant of the things since his last regeneration. So he amended, "I don't like them. Can't say I'd like staying in a cell with you and Janet either, though. Hmm."

"Such a dilemma. I'll have to make sure not to drug their coffee and incite this rebellion, won't I? Keep them busy arguing whether some bit of alien tech is a weapon or a medical instrument, and not tell them it's really a game."

"Or a toaster - there is that. Though that could have some unfortunate consequences all of its own.."

"We don't use the toaster." Jack told him simply, before pausing for a moment. "Unless there's some sort of attack in the hub."

"It would function as an interestingly complex fire-thrower with some modifications.." Thinking, he added, "Not that I suggest you make them. Or that I'll be telling you how."

"No modifications needed. Insert bread, start the toast, and hide under the nearest table. Not much as far as aim goes and the reaction can be a bit delayed, but it throws flame alright."

"Well, I meant a bit more literally than 'set the toast on fire', but that works, too." He couldn't help a grin at that.

"Admittedly it'll set fire to anything that gets put into it. The toast launches the best though. The fact that we managed to modify it to plug into a standard wall outlet means it's not exactly great for handheld use."

"Sort of the point, isn't it? Heating things up.." A pause, and the Doctor almost laughed. "I've yet to see an effective handheld toaster, to be honest."

"Just tends to make things a bit hotter then your average toaster. Well, as far as using things for their unintended purposes, we've got a heat ray with near dead batteries that toasts a slice of bread fantasticly." Jack told him, grinning.

"So the toaster's a weapon and the heat ray is a toaster.." He considered this, amused. "You lot have a knack for switching things around, don't you?"

"What can I say? If the shoe fits like a glove... chances are it's not going to make a very good shoe. Whatever works. Besides, it makes breakfast a bit more interesting."

The Doctor laughed, and reflected briefly that this was probably the best day he had had in a long time. "I guess it would. I feel a bit old-fashioned, now, with my twenty-first century toaster in the TARDIS..."

"Think of it this way." Jack suggested. "At least you won't need to explain to anyone that yes, the heat ray does belong in the kitchen."

"That's true. Though I'm not entirely sure, with all the things in the TARDIS, that'd come as much surprise if I did have one.."

"And even if you didn't I'm sure now that you have the idea you could throw something together that didn't need to have it's batteries near dead to work right."

He waved a hand, shrugging. "I could probably work something out." A pause, "I'm sure I have some parts in the TARDIS that aren't being used for anything.."

"Something to do if you end up in a rainy day somewhere." He suggested lightly. "Or when you're taking a break between stops."

"Right. If I end up terribly bored.. or, you know, in Cardiff and you're not here." Because Cardiff was dreadfully boring for a time traveler who needed to refuel and happened to be alone.

"Then you've got something to fiddle with. Though you could always just try another time."

"I could. Depends on my mood, I suppose." This with a brief quicksilver grin. As aware as anyone else of the fact that he wasn't known for the stability of his feelings.

"Of course. Provided you're bored enough you could try holding a conversation over an extended period of time to see how easily you can confuse whoever's at the desk." Jack told him, smiling.

"Well, I'm certainly good enough at talking," he replied with a grin. "How long would it take, d'you think, to confuse your staff?"

"I don't know, depends on how hard you tried. How close together you made the stops." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "On second thought- an hour maybe?"

"That long?" he asked, making a small sound of disappointment. "I must be slipping. Usually it doesn't take long at all to confuse someone."

"Well, I meant to confuse all of them." Jack assured him. "Some of them would be a little harder to confuse then others, but none of them would take over twenty minutes."

"Oh, all of them. Well, then, an hour seems fair to me, then. I thought you meant just one... that would be a bit slow."

"I've got more faith in you then that, Doc. If you spent an hour trying to confuse one of them it would probably leave them useless for the rest of the day."

The Doctor grinned. "Which would be fun, admittedly, but I don't think I would want to deprive you of a member of your team... not for too long, anyway."

"I've got others. If it came to it though, you could just take to confusing the passerby." Jack offered.

"I could. Just start talking about quantum physics near them... do you know, it's nearly impossible to find anyone else who really understands quantum physics." Pausing, "Well, I do tend to take it to a bit of a... level, but still."

"Can't help you there I'm afraid. The odd extrapolator? Sure. But I try to stay away from physics, quantum or otherwise."

"Didn't think so.. ah, well. Not enough of a problem to be a problem, eh?" Shrugging. "The TARDIS doesn't mind the physics so much.."

Jack chose to carefully not believe that the Doctor talked physics over with his ship, whether the TARDIS was telepathic or not, and thus didn't respond to that. "Exactly, I'm more for hands on things."

The Doctor, likewise, decided to pretend that he had not said that aloud. Being alone for as long as he had, it became a bit disconcerting what one let slip when they didn't mean to in conversations. Like that. "I've noticed," a bit dryly, then, smiling, "Good at repairs, not good at physics. I'll keep it in mind."

"You do that." Jack told him, flashing a smile. "Though I'm useful for more in a pinch and if I've got something to work with. Then of course, there's always my specialty."

The Doctor, ever the skeptic, raised an eyebrow. "Do I want to ask you what that is?" Well, of course, now he had to.

"You shouldn't have to." He replied, mocking a hurt expression. "But if you weren't paying attention... I'll just have to try harder."

"I'm forgetful," he said with a shrug. "I'll have to make an effort to remember."

"Well that's a new one, can't say I'm commonly called forgettable." Jack grinned to show he was joking.

"Well, it's your own fault, isn't it?" Joking in return, and then, less so, "Nah, never could forget you. That's asking too much." Okay, maybe he wasn't finished teasing yet.

"I don't see how it could be my fault you've got a faulty memory. Though apparently just in some levels." A pause to think. "Do you need a hint then?"

"It's got to be your fault," he replied, trying unsuccessfully to look serious. "It's certainly not mine. And that depends on your idea of a hint."

"Can't be." He told the Doctor self assuredly, before flashing him a smile. "Depends on what kind of hint you'd like."

"Definitely is," he retorted, then shrugged at the question of hints. "Well, that's really up to you, isn't it? I mean, unless it's one of those choose a number games.. in which case, it's four to the power of seven, by the way."

"Matter of courtesy." Jack told him innocently. "Let me rethink the question." He paused for a moment, pretending to do so. "How strong a hint would you like?"

The Doctor seemed to consider this for a moment, and ended up with the answer, "That depends, I suppose, on how much reminding you think I'll need, doesn't it?"

In almost any other circumstances, Jack would almost think that he was asking for it. They weren't though. "I suppose it does. Wouldn't happen to have a rough idea as to how much you think you might, would you?"

He shrugged, looking nonplussed. Really, it was hard to judge intentions by the Doctor's expressions. "Not a clue, sorry." He wondered briefly what he was getting himself into, exactly. Ah, curiosity. Killed the Time Lord after all. Well, regenerated him. Something.

Jack eyed the other man skeptically. "I refuse to believe you're completely clueless, or that you'd admit it if you were." He shifted his weight slightly, thinking.

"I'm never completely clueless, Jack. You know better than that." Another shrug, not at all helpful.

"No, not you." He agreed, pushing himself up off the bed slowly into a standing position. "Not completely."

The Doctor grinned. "Never. Well.." A brief pause, thinking, and he shook his head. "No, not completely."

Jack took a few steps towards him, just enough to be on the boundary of close, his movements still slow, deliberate. "About that hint then..."

He raised an eyebrow, still smirking, and didn't step away. "Hmm?"

Jack smiled, buying one more second before resolving himself. Taking one last step forward he leaned forward, not as slow but with the same deliberation, and kissed him. After lingering a few seconds he pulled back to look him in the eye. "Will that do?"

The Doctor was only very slightly responsive to the kiss - a measured response, really, somewhere between returning and simply allowing. He nodded at Jack's question, smiling almost despite himself. "I think I've got the idea.." Leaving room for Jack to do what he wanted, really. He was amused, probably more than he ought to have been. Given the situation.

"I'm sure you do." Jack told him simply, grinning. A bit confounded at the moment, though not that he'd let it show. Instead he made a half joke. "Though if that's what you wanted you could've just asked."

The Doctor - well, this Doctor, anyway - was rather amused by the situation. His last regeneration had been less fond of these sorts of games. He wondered if it was a throwback to a different regeneration and dismissed it. "Ah, so I should make myself more clear next time, then?"

"Exactly. Playing stupid doesn't suit you." Jack wasn't quite sure what to think, but nor was he actively complaining. Part of his mind couldn't help wondering if this had anything to do with the fact that the Doctor had been travelling alone.

"I am pretty rubbish at it, aren't I?" he asked, thinking it over for a moment. "Well, nothing for it, really.." A pause - was this something he wanted to be doing? Well, probably. He didn't have the time or the inclination to hesitate, putting a hand on Jack's shoulder and pulling him in quickly for a kiss - less hesitant than Jack's had been.

He wasn't playing stupid, anyway.

Jack couldn't help a moment's surprise before he gave into, and a moment later made to return it. This was getting less and less along the lines of how he'd thought meeting back up with the Doctor again would go, but it was proving a pleasant surprise.

As if timed, there was a knock on the door, and a moment later it opened anyway. "Jack?" Toshiko asked as she stuck her head into the door opening, peering into the room. "Just letting you know I'm-" She stopped mid sentence and her eyes widened for a moment before she ducked back out.

The Doctor hadn't been anticipating this, either, not quite. He had initiated it, but he hadn't expected it. He didn't pull away, actually, until he heard another voice and snapped out of it, staring at the door with an absolutely dumbfounded expression.

Jack took a step backwards once the Doctor had pulled away, putting a hand on his shoulder briefly before turning away to move for the door. "Tosh?" Glancing through the door he found her standing a few feet away. "You seem to have the knocking part down, generally it's a bit more useful if you wait for a response."

As she started to apologize he cut her off, and gestured for her to come back. She moved to the doorway and waited. "What did you want to tell me?" He asked.

"That I'm going for the night." She told him simply.

"Early night for once?" Jack couldn't help but ask, a bit surprised. She looked at him with slight confusion.

"It's almost one AM. Usually you've kicked us out by now."

"Ah." Time flies, he guessed.

The Doctor, trying very hard not to look embarrassed (because he wasn't, honestly, it was just a kiss, he wasn't that bad... was he?), raised an eyebrow at that. "..one AM, already?" Now that was weird. He usually found it impossible to lose track of time.

She nodded. "Yes. Your light was still on, so I thought I'd let you know I was going. Ianto left around an hour ago. He said to let you know when I saw you."

"Right. Thanks for the update." He smiled slightly. "Now get going before I decide to send you home early tommorow to make up for your staying late." Jack told her jokingly. "I'm sure I'll see you back here in a few hours."

Toshiko smiled warily. "Of course." She nodded to each of them in turn. "Good night."

He gave Toshiko a quick smile and a nod before turning back to Jack, leaning against the door slightly, hands in his pockets. Once Toshiko had gone, though the smile faded somewhat. "..it's late," he commented after a moment. The implications obvious.

"And in a few hours it'll be early again." Jack told him casually. Buying a few more seconds before he had to accept those implications.

"Yeah.. it will be." A nod, and he paused. Putting it off himself, though he knew he had to go eventually. Staying too long wouldn't do either of them any good. "..but I should.." A vague gesture out the door.

Jack nodded vaguely, almost without thinking about it. "Yeah..." He agreed, without emotion, putting aside the thought of telling him he didn't have to.

"Well, I'll be back, of course," he commented, not trying to resist the urge to fill up the quiet. The doubt. "Before too long, you know. Can't stay out of Cardiff for too long, not when I want to and certainly not when I don't."

"True enough. No end of things going on for you to be drawn into. Nevermind the fact that the Rift's right here to refuel from." He could focus on the coming back part.

"Exactly. You lot always need rescue from something or other, it's not like I won't be back.. or anyway right next door." By which he meant in London. A pause, then, and he added, "I can't promise when I'll be back. But I won't be too long."

"No way of knowing, right? It'll be a surprise. And at least this time I'll have a face to be on the lookout for." He tried to keep his voice light.

"Right! You know what to look for. Since I don't plan on changing that anytime soon - it's really sort of a pain, you end up running into people you know and they've no idea who you are, and.." A pause, and he seemed to realize that he was rambling, putting off the inevitable. "Anyway, it won't be long. If I can help it. You'll just have to be vigilant."

"Alright. Will do." He searched for something else to say, more words to fill up another minute or two. Not able to find many, he tried the next best thing and made an offer. "Do you want me to walk you back?"

The Doctor paused, thinking, then nodded. "Sure. It's not very far, really. She's got a slight tendency to park herself in the middle of things these days.." Oh, as if the TARDIS hadn't always done that.

"People are always less likely to pay attention to things when they're right under their noses. She's got a point." Jack hadn't expected him to say yes, and decided he needed to have a thorough reorganization of his expectations sometime.

"Fair enough. Still, could do without walking out the door and into trouble quite so often.." A pause, and he grinned. "Actually, I could probably do with it more often, but sometimes it's nice to get your bearings first."

"Definitely, though it is convenient when trouble decides to show up on your doorstep. Saves the hunting it down in any case." He made the slightest of moves to start on the way to the door.

"That's true - no lengthy searches for conspiracies and hiding places when you open the door and oh, there it is.." he said, going to the door and opening it, holding it for Jack. "Though it's occasionally a bad idea. You know, if it had oh, one little tiny insignificant weakness and I've landed in front of it with the sonic screwdriver and a bit of copper wire..."

Jack moved through the door, nodding his thanks. "No, I'll admit you're not exactly left with time to prepare." He paused for a moment. "Well, not in your case really, is it? If you look outside first there's not exactly much that can get in the TARDIS if you don't want it to, is there? You could take all the time you wanted to get ready."

The Doctor nodded at that, closing the door behind them. "Well, yes, that's true. Although the one time in question, with the copper wire, er..." A pause, and he looked away briefly, "...someone closed the door on me. Would've taken longer than my life to get the key out and unlock it. Left me in sort of a bad place."

"Ah. The downside of locks." He said as if dispensing wisdom. "I'd think with a telepathic ship she'd think to let you in. How'd it turn out?"

"You'd think, but no, sometimes she just sort of... leaves me to sort it out." He shrugged, then smiled again. "Well, I managed to get it worked out. Bit of tricky footwork, and it's a very good thing I forget about things I put in my pockets sometimes. It was allergic to chalk."

"Some things tend to be. Problem is they've got a habit of not telling you. Next thing you know, you've challenged them to a friendly game of billiards, and they take it as a personal threat." He racked his brain for a moment. "Species a bit reddish, with an extra eye?"

Thinking back, "You know, I think it was. Regular pain, that one. Kept thinking I was trying to kill it.. 'course, that was before I figured out it was allergic to chalk. I had some in my pocket, so.. chalk dust."

"From what mine told me later, it's because everyone on their planet's aware of it. They get off world, and don't really expect the rest of the universe not to. A bit bad tempered but friendly enough after awhile."

"Ah. I didn't really stick around to find out, honestly. Sort of threw a piece of chalk at it and ran." He smiled a little, adding, "I imagine the chalk's there from when I was teaching at this.. this school, in London. Years back. No idea why I still had it. I only taught there for two days."

"And then you stole their chalk." Jack made a sound of disaproval, but grinned. "Though, going by your usual pattern I can't imagine the school was left in any shape afterwards to miss it..."

"Er, it sort of.. exploded. Not my fault. Well, maybe a little. But.. Krillitanes! There really wasn't any way around it." Jokingly defensive. Or maybe defensively joking. Hard to say.

Jack lead the way towards the secondary exit, the lift. "I'm sure the students were more then thankful." He feigned innocent for a moment. "There was a reporter looking into that school, wasn't there? A Ms. Smith?"

"Oh, they were cheering." A pause at the mention of the reporter, and he grinned, though it bore perhaps a hint of something else. Nostalgia or sadness, it was hard to say. "Sarah Jane. She was there."

"She travelled with you." He said simply. "She's been very active since the incident at the school. She's cleared up everything we've managed to miss, even managed to adopt a kid."

"Has she?" He looked surprised, then his smile softened. "Good for her. Good for her."

"She also mentioned something about a dog keeping a black hole in check. Bit of computer trouble at one point, but it was pinned down to megalomania. There was something else too..."

"A dog..? D'you mean K9?" He had to ask, looking at him. Glad to hear news of Sarah Jane. Especially given that he wouldn't go see her himself.. couldn't. Sort of. "Something else?"

"That might've been it, yeah. She's got something going on in this cupboard, it leads to the black hole, she didn't feel the need to clarify." He shrugged slightly. "There was...something. It had the ability to go to a point in time and erase people from existance. Worked with a Graske, sort of intent on causing chaos. For awhile she apparently didn't exist, and while that happened she was in this white space..." Jack trailed off for a moment.

"White space?" The Doctor frowned slightly - worried, if he noted it himself. "What do you mean? ..she's alright, though, isn't she?"

"You remember her, don't you? She's fine, perfectly fine." Jack assured him. "More worried about you I think. You see, while she was in the white space she had a chat with whatever it was. While no outward threat was made, it seemed very interested in the havoc that would be caused in the universe if you'd never existed."

"If I'd never existed? ..well, good luck to them on that level," he said blithely, but his expression was more serious than his words were. "I'm glad she's alright, at any rate."

"It's still out there, whatever it is, and whatever it does can take place in a minute. For what it's worth, I figured you should at least have warning."

The Doctor nodded, looking pensive for the moment. "..thanks for that. I appreciate it." A pause. "Don't suppose this white space would be the type to confront me before attempting to relieve the universe of my presence?"

"Isn't the white space that does the confrontation." Jack told him, pausing for a moment to step up onto a platform. "For the one doing it she's got the description of a 'dark figure'. He didn't do any confronting either though. Did everything from outside her house in the middle of the night."

The Doctor followed, frowning as he thought over this. "So more the non-confrontational type? That's fine, I suppose. As long as it stays non-confrontationally away from my timeline, I'll be fine." It was a bad joke, but his mind was mostly elsewhere.

"Stay back from the edge." He warned briefly, an a moment later the lift started to move up. "There was something she had, that she gave to a neighbor girl who'd been helping. A sort of puzzle box. After she vanished the girl was apparently the only one who remembered her. Otherwise no one would've known any different."

"Hm. Any idea what the puzzle box means? ..or rather, what the solution to the puzzle is?" Curious. He did take the time to step back from the edge of the lift, though.

"It was some sort of artifact, a gift from someone they helped. I don't think it had a solution per say. Y-" He stopped for a moment, as the lift rose up, eventually coming back through to the outside. Jack corrected himself. "I could take a ride out there one day, see if they'll let me at least take a picture of it to bring back and show you, find out what I can."

A pause, and the Doctor nodded. "I'd like that. Thanks." He had an idea what Jack had been going to suggest, but... no. He wouldn't go bothering, and he didn't know those people anyway. Well, Sarah Jane, but... he had said goodbye to her. Looking around as the lift came up, he raised an eyebrow. "This is..."

"The millenium center? Or do you mean more specifically?" He couldn't help but grin. "No one'll see us. Happens to have been a dimensionally transcendental chameleon circuit parked here at one point. Ended up welding its perception filters to a certain spatial-temporal rift."

The Doctor smiled, shrugging off the discomforting thought of ceasing to exist for the moment. "You've set up your lift where the TARDIS landed during the second Slitheen incident," he said, sounding a bit bemused, and adding, "Clever of you."

"In simpler terms, yeah. And I worked so hard on that technobabble too." He joked. "Had to wait until after you'd parked there to install it though. Couldn't have us ending up falling down into the hub post materialization. Wasn't much fun in the hub that day, by the way. Earthquakes and underground bases do not good friends make."

"No, I'd imagine not." He shook his head. "It's gotten better, I assume? With the earthquakes and whatnot. Seemed all in one piece." A pause,and he pointed, "TARDIS is this way."

"Stayed in one piece in general, just a bit of patching up but we got that done a while ago. Helped me keep my position of mysterious leader when I told them they should get out of Cardiff for the day, and they found out about it all when they got back." Jack turned to head in that direction.

"Ah, so it's all about image." He was joking, leading the way back in the direction of the TARDIS. She wasn't far from where he'd run into Jack to begin with, actually.

"Of course. Not that I wanted to keep them away from the TARDIS, and coincedentally the me having quite the unexciting evening with her while I was the only one left without a date, and also to keep them from outside the potentially hazardous hub." He conceded matter of factly, following him.

"Exactly. It was just image," he replied, sounding amused though he tried to keep a straight face. Grinned anyway. "Really, you were better off without a date that night... got a bit complicated, don't know if you remember.." Teasing.

"Are you so sure about that?" Jack couldn't help asking, with a rather knowing tone. "Because if we hadn't left me dateless, I wouldn't have been able to hook up the extrapolator and kick the whole thing off, would I?"

"Hmm. Fair enough point. Worked out in the end, though." He shrugged, clearly not overly bothered by the memory. "She got her second chance, no one was dead, and the TARDIS was alright." Well, actually, it had been the Slitheen's third chance. But his last regeneration had a bit more mercy that way.

"Day would've been alot more fun if I'd been able to do something about it beforehand. Kept that newspaper from ever being printed." Jack shrugged, speaking lightly.

"Mm. But you'd be messing with the timelines. Very bad idea. Enormously bad idea. Catastrophically bad idea. Can't mess with history once it's happened, Jack." His voice was light, but it was hard to tell if he was joking or not.

"I know that. Got the whole spiel from the Agency ages before I met you. I know what I can and can't do." And that's why I just sat and watched it from the hub surveillance.

The Doctor nodded, then. "Good. Just double-checking. No telling what would have happened... well, plenty of inferring what would have happened if that hadn't. Can't know for sure, well.. unless you're me, and putting it into words.." A shrug. He certainly didn't sell himself short in this regeneration, did he?

"I get the picture. Leave it to the professional." Jack said agreeably. "But we're out of events I know to avoid, so all I can do is keep an eye out and wing it. Doesn't make sense to let things sit if they're just on the off chance."

The Doctor nodded. "Nothing's coming to mind immediately, so you should be alright." A smile, and he added, "Just remember to walk away if you see the old me 'round." It was always just a touch unsettling, that.

"Don't worry, I'll keep it up." Though generally he tended to find something to duck behind instead. It saved whoever he might be with thinking he was lost, and worked just as well.

"Good - less chance of causing a paradox that way. I do end up here a lot." Sometimes he did wonder if that was a good thing or a bad thing. "Oh, this way." Pointing out a small side-street.

"Right." Jack nodded briefly, heading for it. "I know, that's why I set up here, figured it would be a matter of time. Ending up somewhere alot just means you end up knowing your way around."

The Doctor led the way down the small street, and his direction soon became clear as the blue police box came into view. "..so it does. Not much in Cardiff to know your way around, is there?" A small joke, as if making up for the reference to how long Jack had been there.

"No, not really. And I'll admit to still using a GPS besides. At least it lets us avoid detours. Tends to get busy for its size though." He joked back, following the Doctor.

"It does, at that. Then again.. Earth in general tends to be that way." They had reached the TARDIS, and the Doctor was looking in his pocket for his key. Maybe taking a moment or two longer than was strictly necessary to find it.

"Also true. Wouldn't be such an issue if more of the traffic was tourism though." He stayed a few feet back, hands shoved into the pockets of his greatcoat.

"Oh, I don't know about that.. intergalactic tourism's a bit of a pain, isn't it?" Lightly, but then he paused, looking uncomfortable for a moment. "..suppose this is it for a little while." A little while. That was important.

"Yeah... As short a while as you'd like." Jack reminded him simply. Reminding himself that he'd set his own time limit. "Something to look forward too, right?"

"Right." He smiled at that. "Something to look forward to. I'll see you soon enough." Not that there really was a soon enough, but..

"If you need anything you know where to find me. Whatever it is." He told him, almost cemented where he stood. "See you then."

"I will." He flashed him a smile before turning to the TARDIS's door, unlocking it and pushing it open. "'Bye, Jack." He glanced back once before he went inside, the door shutting smoothly behind him, and a moment later the distinctive sound of the TARDIS's engines was accompanied by the sight of the police box fading away.

'Keep an eye on him', Jack urged the TARDIS silently, as the police box disapeared. He stood and watched until it was just an empty bit of air, and started back to the Hub. He wasn't sure if the other door was locked, and it wouldn't do to have someone let themselves in. That was something to focus on at least. In the morning he could wonder what he'd been thinking.


End file.
